Oil rose to near USD 82 a barrel today in Asia after a jump

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in US stock markets boosted investor confidence and helped extend a four-week rally in crude prices.

Benchmark crude for February delivery was up 31 cents to USD 81.81 a barrel at midday Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract climbed USD 2.15 to settle at USD 81.51 yesterday.

Oil traders often look to stock markets as a measure of overall investor sentiment, and equities rose in the first trading day of 2010 as investors eyed signs of improvement in US and Chinese manufacturing.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 1.5 per cent yesterday while the Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 1.6 per cent. All major Asian stock indexes were up in early trading today.

Crude prices also rose due to colder weather in the US, which traders expect will spur higher demand for oil products such as heating oil.

"Should the stock market maintain its upward momentum amid a further weakening of the dollar, it appears that the oil complex should be well equipped to advance further," Galena, Illinois-based Ritterbusch and Associates said in a report.

Oil has surged about 15 per cent since mid-December. In other Nymex trading in January contracts, heating oil rose 0.56 cent to USD 2.20 a gallon and gasoline gained 1.31 cents to USD 2.12 a gallon.