Commodities

Oil and natural gas daily review (January 23, 2013)

Contributed by Angel Broking

Crude Oil

Nymex crude oil prices increased 0.7 percent yesterday taking cues from rise in the European economic sentiments data which led to expectations of rise in demand for the fuel.

Additionally, weakness in the DX also supported an upside in the crude oil prices. Oil prices touched an intra-day high of $96.38/bbl and closed at $96.24/bbl in yesterday's trading session.

On the domestic bourses, prices gained by 0.9 percent and closed at Rs.5,202/bbl after touching an intra-day high of Rs.5,207/bbl on Tuesday.

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 2.1 million barrels for the week ending on 18th January 2012. Gasoline stocks are expected to rise by 1.3 million barrels and distillate inventories are expected to gain by 0.4 million barrels for the same week.

Outlook

In the intra-day, we expect crude oil prices to trade higher on the back of mixed global market sentiments along with weakness in the DX. Rise in the confidence in the Euro region along with stimulus measures announced by the Bank of Japan might increase the demand for the oil. However, expectation of rise in the crude oil inventories is expected to cap gains. Depreciation in the Indian Rupee will act as a supportive factor for MCX crude oil prices.