Oil prices tanked 2.5 per cent on Thursday after the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed that US stockpiles jumped last week.

The EIA said that crude oil inventories surged by 4.14m barrels to 376.4m last week, the highest level since July last year. The consensus estimate was for a gain of just 2.0m.

Crude futures for April delivery fell $2.38 to $92.84, the lowest price so far in 2013.

Meanwhile the price of gold, up just 0.04% higher at $1578.60, was more or less unchanged at a seven-month low as the dollar strengthened after the latest minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC).

The minutes indicated more hawkish tone among policy-makers, suggesting that the Fed would soon begin to scale back its quantitative easing programme soon.

Analysts highlighted the 'death cross' technical picture of gold which, as the name suggests, is often treated as a negative sign, where the 50-day moving average crosses below the 200-day moving average.

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