Crude oil futures traded marginally lower on Thursday morning despite a drop in the US crude oil inventories. However, a stronger dollar impacted the crude oil prices in the global market.
At 10.02 am on Thursday, November Brent oil futures were at $88.90, down by 0.47 per cent, and November crude oil futures on WTI were at $81.78, down by 0.45 per cent.
October crude oil futures were trading at ₹6,711 on Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) in the initial trading hour of Thursday morning against the previous close of ₹6,685, up by 0.39 per cent, and November futures were trading at ₹6,683 as against the previous close of ₹6,663, up by 0.30 per cent.
Slight decline
According to the Petroleum Status Report of the US EIA (Energy Information Administration) for the week ending September 23, which was released on September 28, the commercial crude oil inventories (excluding those in the strategic petroleum reserve) decreased by 0.2 million barrels from the previous week. At 430.6 million barrels, US crude oil inventories were about 2 per cent below the five-year average for this time of year.
US crude oil imports averaged 6.4 million barrels a day last week, a decrease of 0.5 million barrels a day from the previous week. Over the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged about 6.5 million barrels a day, 5.6 per cent more than the same four-week period last year.
However, total products supplied in the US over the last four-week period averaged 19.7 million barrels a day, down by 3.1 per cent from the same period last year.
Meanwhile, a strong dollar also impacted the crude oil prices on Thursday morning. A strong dollar makes crude oil more expensive for people holding other currencies. This impacts the demand for the commodity.
In his outlook for the day, Prathamesh Mallya, AVP (Research, Non-Agri Commodities, and Currencies), Angel One Ltd, said: “We expect crude to trade higher towards ₹6,850 levels, a break of which could prompt the price to move higher to ₹6,980 levels.”
Guar gum gains, dhaniya cools
October natural gas futures were trading at ₹577.20 on MCX in the initial trading hour of Thursday morning against the previous close of ₹564.30, up by 2.29 per cent.
On the National Commodities and Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX), October guar gum contracts were trading at ₹9,555 in the initial trading hour of Thursday morning against the previous close of ₹9,483, up by 0.76 per cent.
October dhaniya futures were trading at ₹11,010 on NCDEX in the initial trading hour of Thursday morning against the previous close of ₹11,074, down by 0.58 per cent.