(Updates with gasoil in last paragraph.)

Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Hedge funds and other money managers cut bullish bets on Brent crude by 11 percent in the week ended Oct. 25, according to data from ICE Futures Europe.

Speculative bets that prices will rise, in futures and options combined, outnumbered short positions by 48,408 contracts, the London-based exchange said today in its weekly Commitment of Traders report. Net-long positions fell by 5,800 contracts, from 54,208 a week earlier.

Bearish bets by producers, merchants, processors and users on Brent crude outnumbered bullish positions by 68,180 lots. Their net-short positions were 1,496 contracts more than the previous week.

Swaps dealers were net-long 21,018 Brent contracts. That’s 995, or 4.5 percent, lower than the week earlier.

Net long managed-money bets on gasoil futures and options increased to 59,689 contracts last week. That’s an advance of 5,901 lots or 11 percent.

--Editors: John Buckley, Alessandro Vitelli

To contact the reporter on this story:

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Voss on sev@bloomberg.net