Oil prices fell on Monday for the second straight session, with low trading volumes for some holidays in Europe due to Easter and as a result that hedge funds and other large speculators were reluctant to bet on a rebound two months amid high inventories.
Sentiment towards futures Brent and West Texas Instrument (WTI) remained off because investment banks such as Barclays and Macquarie, warned that market fundamentals were weak enough to carry prices back to $ 30 a barrel.
Brent crude futures closed down 17 cents at $ 40.27 a barrel.
Reuters data showed that operations in the contract based in London reached 73,000 lots compared with 200,000 a regular session.
Meanwhile, the WTI in the US fell 7 cents to $ 39.39 a barrel.
The prices of both contracts are up about 50 percent from 12-year lows they touched in mid-February.
Despite this progress, weekly data Trading Commission Commodity Futures US (CFTC) suggest that money managers, including hedge funds, were reluctant to bet on a rebound WTI, although many also expecting a new collapse in prices.
Crude inventories in the US rose by 9.4 million barrels in the week to March 18, three times more than expected by analysts.
Most banks expect few hikes in oil prices in the near future.
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