Oil prices touched 75 U.S. dollars a barrel on Monday as investors believed oil demand would pick up along with the economic recovery, Xinhua reported.
Light, sweet crude for October delivery swiftly touched 75 dollars a barrel, first time in ten months, before retreating to settle at 74.37 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Investors were still encouraged by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's upbeat remarks that the United States was already on the verge of recovery, which provided a brighter outlook for the world economy and sent oil prices to a fresh high for the year.
Meanwhile, gains on the equities market also added support to the price of oil. In London, Brent Crude for October delivery traded almost unchanged at 74.18 dollars a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.