New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) crude futures held steady in thin electronic ACCESS trade yesterday, following last Thursday's gasoline-led rally, while traders were watching for any impact from Hurricane Ignacio.

A holiday in London kept trading volume low and prices were moving little in either direction.

Front-month October crude was quoted at US$31.82 a barrel at 0115 GMT, down 2 US cents from Friday's settlement of US$31.84 in New York, where the contract was 4 US cents lower.

Volume for the contract was an extremely thin 110 lots.

Hurricane Ignacio swirled dangerously close to the southern tip of Mexico's sparsely populated Baja California peninsula on Sunday, after strengthening from a tropical storm before dawn.

"Prices are not moving much. But traders are eyeing whether the hurricane could have an impact on gasoline supplies," a Tokyo trader said.

Oil prices were higher on Thursday after US government data showed a fall in gasoline supplies to their lowest levels in nine months.

Yesterday, NYMEX September gasoline was down 0.55 US cent at US$1.0870 a gallon, while NYMEX September heating oil was unchanged at 83 US cents a gallon.

Brent crude oil in London was not traded yesterday due to a holiday.

Tokyo Commodity Exchange (TOCOM) benchmark January crude was unchanged at 19,400 yen (US$164.4).

TOCOM March benchmark gasoline was quoted at 27,670 yen (US$234.49), up 120 yen (US$1.01), while March kerosene was up 60 yen (51 US cents) at 28,170 yen (US$238.72).

Singapore's August Middle East crude futures were untraded.

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