Commodities » Energy

Oil and natural gas daily review (March 05, 2013)

Contributed by Angel Broking

Crude Oil

Nymex crude oil prices declined around 0.6 percent yesterday taking cues from decline in China's non-manufacturing data which led to expectations of slow demand growth in world's second largest consumer for crude oil.

However, sharp downside in the prices was cushioned on the back of weakness in the DX. Crude oil prices touched an intra-day low of $89.33/bbl and closed at $90.12/bbl in yesterday's trading session.

On the domestic bourses, prices declined by 1.2 percent and closed at Rs.4,951/bbl after touching an intra-day low of Rs.4,943/bbl on Monday. Depreciation in the Indian Rupee prevented sharp fall in the prices on the MCX.


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 0.7 million barrels for the week ending on 1st March 2013.

Gasoline stocks are expected to decline by 1.3 million barrels and distillate inventories are expected to fall by 0.9 million barrels for the same week.


Outlook

In today's session, we expect crude oil prices to trade with positive bias due to upbeat global market sentiments along with weakness in the DX. However, sharp upside in the prices will be capped on the back of expectations of rise in US crude oil inventories from API.

In the Indian markets, appreciation in the Rupee will prevent sharp gains in the prices on the MCX.