Crude oil futures slightly gained on Thursday in reaction to better than expected US and Chinese manufacturing data. China’s manufacturing data turned out to be better than expected as China’s Purchasing Mangers’ Index gained to 50.9 for the month of August as compared to 50.7 in the month of July. Analysts expected manufacturing index to be around 51 which was close enough.

In United States Institute of Supply Management also released their purchasing managers’ index which came out to be at 50.6 percent as compared to 48.8 percent anticipated by analysts.

Crude oil futures contract for October delivery gained 0.1 percent or $0.12 to settle at $88.93 per barrel on New York Mercantile Exchange.

Among other commodities natural gas futures contract for October delivery dropped 0.1 percent to $4.05 per million British thermal units. The drop came after the Energy Information Administration reported increase of 55 billion cubic feet in gas supplies for the week ended August 26^th, 2011.

Gasoline futures contract for October delivery surged 0.6 percent or $0.02 to $2.89 per gallon while heating oil futures contract for October delivery fell 1 percent or $0.03 to $3.05 per gallon on Thursday.