Crude futures were lifted by a raft of supportive indicators in early trading on Thursday, although some traders warned that physical supply and demand fundamentals did not warrant a strong price recovery at this stage.

International Brent futures traded above 40 dollars per barrel in early trading and stood at 40.07 dollars at 0038 GMT, up 23 cents from the last close and almost 8 per cent above lows reached earlier this week.

Front month U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were trading at 38.09 dollars per barrel, up 34 cents from their last close and 8 per cent above their April lows.

U.S. crude prices were supported by an unexpected fall in crude inventories, albeit from all-time record highs last week as refineries continued to hike output and imports fell.

“Oil prices spiked after the EIA data release,” ANZ bank said in a morning note on Thursday.

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