BEIJING: Shanghai crude oil futures opened the morning session down nearly 2 percent on Thursday, pushing the new market below U.S. prices as producers and local traders continued to place bearish bets, traders said.The latest drop takes the fall since the contract's launch on Monday to 10 percent.
Volume in the overnight session from 9 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. in China was healthy with more than 50,000 lots, equal to 25 million barrels of oil trading.
Shanghai crude oil futures were down 1.7 percent at 407.1 yuan ($64.67) per barrel at 9:09 a.m. (0109 GMT). ($1 = 6.2946 Chinese yuan renminbi)