Commodities

Oil and natural gas daily review (February 26, 2013)

Contributed by Angel Broking

Crude Oil

Nymex crude oil prices traded on a flat note and declined marginally in yesterday's trade taking cues from concerns over the results Italy's election which may lead to Euro Zone debt crisis thus affecting the demand for the fuel.

Additionally, strength in the DX also exerted downside pressure on the prices. Crude oil prices touched an intra-day low of $92.07/bbl and closed at $93.10/bbl in yesterday's trading session.

On the domestic bourses, prices declined by 0.4 percent on account of appreciation in the Indian Rupee and closed at Rs.5,051/bbl after touching an intra-day low of Rs.5,026/bbl on Monday.

API Inventories Forecast

The American Petroleum Institute (API) is scheduled to release its weekly inventories today and US crude oil inventories are expected to rise by 2.3 million barrels for the week ending on 22nd February 2013.

Gasoline stocks are expected to decline by 0.4 million barrels and distillate inventories are expected to fall by 1.0 million barrels for the same week.

Outlook

In today's session, we expect crude oil prices to trade with negative bias due to expectations of Italy's election results will not be able to form the government in majority thus creating the Euro Zone debt crisis. Strength in the DX coupled with weak global market sentiments also added downside pressure on the prices.

In the Indian markets, depreciation in the Rupee will cushion sharp fall in the prices on the MCX.