Free MCX Tips: Crude oil futures spiked by more than 2 per cent in the domestic market on Friday as investors and speculators booked fresh positions in the energy commodity tracking a positive trend in the overseas market as a seventh straight drop in US weekly rig count signaled lower production ahead in the world’s biggest oil consuming nation, easing concerns over a global supply glut.

The number of rigs drilling for oil in the US fell by 10 to 595 last week, Baker Hughes said.

Investors shrugged off mixed US economic data which showed a second straight drop in factory output in September but consumer sentiment improved this month, signaling uncertainty over the demand outlook for the fuel in the world’s biggest economy.

US manufacturing production fell 0.1% in September 2015 from the previous month, while industrial output declined 0.2%. However, the gauge measuring US consumer sentiment climbed to 92.1 in October, the first increase in four months, from 87.2 in September.

Oil may fall today as the slowest expansion in China’s GDP growth since Q1 2009 in Q3 2015 signals diminished demand prospects from the world’s second biggest oil consuming nation.

At the MCX, Crude oil futures, for the October 2015 agreement, closed at Rs 3,055 per barrel, up by 2.31 per cent, after opening at Rs 3,008, against the previous close price of Rs 2,986. It touched an intraday high of Rs 3,075.