Oil prices fell during Wednesday’s trading, continuing to decline for a fourth consecutive session, amid fears of global pandemic as the coronavirus continued to spread rapidly outside China.

The sell off continued to hit risky assets causing a decline of nearly 3 percent in oil prices on Monday to record the lowest level in two weeks.  

As of 07:58 GMT, Brent crude reached $54.02 per barrel, compared to the sessions open at $54.41 a barrel, touching the lowest level at $53.80, which is the lowest since February 2 of the current year.  

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures traded at $59.78 per barrel, to complete four consecutive daily sessions of losses, while the lowest level recorded during the session was at $49.58, the lowest since February 11.

The Black gold continued to fall with sharp losses in global equities, amid growing concern about the impact of China's virus on global economic growth and oil demand.

The director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), Fatih Birol, said that estimates of crude demand growth could be reduced due to the Chinese virus.

The number of Corona virus victims has increased by 406 new confirmed cases and 52 new deaths, as of February 25, according to china's National Health Commission. This brings the total number of confirmed HIV infections in mainland China to 78,064 to date.

Outside China, South Korea reported 60 new cases, bringing the total number of people infected by corona virus in the country to 893, Bahrain also reported a rise in the number of infected cases to 26.

US stocks closing

U.S. stock indexes fell at its closing on Tuesday, as fears of global outbreak of Coronavirus derived the investors away from high-risk assets.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 3.1 percent to 27,081 points, losing 879.4 points, recorded the biggest drop in two consecutive days in history.

The S&P 500 tumbled three percent to 3,128 points and the Nasdaq Composite slipped 2.8 percent to 8,965.

Later on Wednesday, investors will focus on the government EIA report tracking the change in US crude inventories for the past week, with expectations of an increase of 2.3 million barrels.