Oil remains near highs after rig count data

Oil prices held onto gains on Friday and remained near session highs after data from Baker Hughes showed that the number of active US oil rigs rose by 1 to 407 rigs in the latest week.

West Texas Intermediate for October delivery was at $44.50 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, up $3.01%, having reached a high of $44.58 amid broad USD weakness.

The greenback fell across the board, pushing up commodities, after US NFP report revealed the economy added 151,000 new jobs in August, down from 275,000 in July and below the 180,000 expected.