Crude oil futures edged lower to Rs 4,423 per barrel on March 3 as participants increased their long positions as seen by the open interest. The energy commodity fell on increase in US oil stockpiles and expectations that OPEC+ may increase production at this week’s meeting.
Crude oil pared earlier losses to trade in negative territory in the afternoon after a gap-down open.
The black gold has been trading higher than 20, 50, 100 and 200 days’ moving averages, but lower than the 5-day moving average on the daily chart. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) is at 60.99 which indicates positive momentum in prices.
The American Petroleum Insitute (API) reported that US crude inventories jumped by 7.5 million barrels for the week ended February 26 as against the expectation of a 0.93 million barrels decline.
Tapan Patel, Senior Analyst (Commodities), HDFC Securities, said, “Crude oil prices are hovering near $ 60 on-demand growth optimism due to vaccine roll-outs and worries that OPEC may ease some output cuts. The market is expecting ease of 1.5 mb per day of output cuts with the end of voluntary production cuts from Saudi Arabia.”
“We expect crude oil prices to trade sideways to down with support at $ 59 and resistance at $ 61.50. MCX Crude oil March has support at Rs 4,320, resistance at Rs 4,450,” he said.
MCX iCOMDEX Crude Oil Index decreased 47.52 points, or 0.94 percent, at 5,007.67 at 15:49.
In the futures market, crude oil for March delivery touched an intraday high of Rs 4,442 and an intraday low of Rs 4,368 per barrel on the MCX. So far in the current series, black gold has touched a low of Rs 3,800 and a high of Rs 4,674.
Crude oil delivery for March slipped Rs 42, or 0.94 percent, to Rs 4,426 per barrel at 15:52 hours IST with a business turnover of 4,799 lots.
Crude oil delivery for April declined Rs 48, or 1.07 percent, to Rs 4,436 per barrel with a business volume of 241 lots.
The value of March and April’s contracts traded so far is Rs 1,133.74 crore and Rs 10.99 crore, respectively.
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude surged 1.44 percent to $ 60.61 per barrel, while Brent crude, the London-based international benchmark, jumped 1.42 percent to $ 63.59 per barrel.
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