Mubasher: Crude oil prices lost more than 2% by the end of Wednesday’s trade, dragged down by the second consecutive rise in American crude stockpiles.

Nymex futures for April delivery declined by 2.32% to $61.15 per barrel, while Brent dropped 2.5%  and reached $64.16 a barrel.

US crude oil stockpiles expanded less than forecasts during the week ended 2 March, data by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed on Wednesday.

Inventories grew by 2.4 million barrels to 425.9 million barrels, standing in the lower half of the average range for this time of the year.

Economists had expected a sharper increase of 2.6 million barrels last week.