Oil rises towards $51 after equities gain

Oil rose towards $51 on Thursday as rallies on stock markets revived thoughts of economic recovery and subsequent increased demand for commodities.

Asian stocks pushed back towards a six-month high on Thursday following gains on U.S. markets, while European equities edged higher ahead of the Bank of England's rate decision later on Thursday.

U.S. light crude for May delivery rose $1.44 cents to $50.82 a barrel by 1041 GMT, having risen more than $2 earlier.

London Brent crude gained $1.31 cents to $52.90.

"I think oil is going up with a lot of other markets at the moment, stock markets have risen and base metals are performing well," said Rob Montefusco, a trader at Sucden Financial.

Oil has often tracked equities this year as investors looked for signs of economic recovery to trigger higher oil demand. Copper prices hit a 5-month high on Thursday after Japan unveiled a record stimulus plan worth $154 billion, adding to thoughts of an increase in demand. Aluminium prices also climbed.

Weekly stocks data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) in the United States showed a lower than expected build in crude oil stocks on Wednesday.

Sucden's Montefusco said: "The data was supportive because we were all anticipating weak numbers and they came pretty much in line, the distillate stocks were also a surprise."

EIA said commercial inventories of crude oil rose 1.7 million barrels to 361.1 million barrels in the week ended April 3. Analysts had forecast a build of 1.9 million barrels.

Distillate stocks fell 3.4 million barrels, much more than the 200,000 barrel draw analysts had projected, to 140.8 million barrels.

A pipeline blast in Turkmenistan on Thursday fully halted Turkmen gas exports to Russia, which said the accident would not have an impact on its customers in Europe.

"The accident won't have an impact on gas supplies to Gazprom's customers," Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom said in a statement, which did not specify the cause of the explosion but said it had caused a fire.