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Crude oil futures gained marginally on Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) on Thursday morning despite International Energy Agency (IEA) members deciding to release 60 million barrels of crude oil from their reserves.
At the time of filing this report, June Brent oil futures were at $102.95, down by 3.46 per cent; and May crude oil futures on WTI were at $97.50, up by 1.32 per cent.
April crude oil futures were trading at ₹7,413 on MCX in the initial hour of Thursday morning against the previous close of ₹7,394, up by 0.26 per cent, and May futures were trading at ₹7,381 against the previous close of ₹7345, up by 0.49 per cent.
Though IEA member countries announced to release 60 million barrels of crude oil from their reserves, in addition to the US decision to release 180 million barrels from its reserves, to bring down the price of crude oil, market participants observed that the supply remains tight in spite of emergency releases from crude oil reserves.
IEA member countries and the US had decided to release crude oil from rereserves after imposing sanctions on Russia due to its war with Ukraine. Russia is a major oil supplier to the global market.
US inventories rise
Petroleum status report for the week ending March 1, which was released by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) on April 6, showed that the US commercial crude oil inventories (excluding those in the strategic petroleum reserve) increased by 2.4 million barrels from the previous week. At 412.4 million barrels, US crude oil inventories were about 14 per cent below the five-year average for this time of year.
Crude oil inventory in the strategic petroleum reserve of the US was at 564.6 million barrels as on April 1 as against 637.8 million barrels in April 1 2021.
In his crude oil outlook for the day, Rahul Kalantri, VP (Commodities) of Mehta Equities Ltd, said oil prices clawed back some losses on Thursday after tumbling more than 5 per cent to a three-week low in the previous session after consuming nations announced a huge release of oil from emergency reserves to offset supply lost from Russia.
He said crude oil also slipped after the Federal Reserve maintained hawkish stance in its March month policy minutes released on Wednesday. Crude oil prices also slipped on Wednesday after the US oil inventories increased by 2.4 million barrels against expectations of a decline of 2.9 million barrels.
“We expect crude oil prices to remain volatile in today’s session. Crude oil is having support at $95.40-$93.80 and resistance is at $101.20–104.50, In rupee terms crude oil has support at ₹7,140-6,960; while resistance is at ₹7,550–7,770,” he said.
April copper futures were trading at ₹814.90 on MCX in the initial hour of Thursday morning against the previous close of ₹817.25, down by 0.29 per cent.
Turmeric gains
On the National Commodities and Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX), April turmeric (farmer polished) futures were trading at ₹9,706 in the initial hour of Thursday morning against the previous close of ₹9,478, up by 2.41 per cent.
April guar gum contracts were trading at ₹13,165 on NCDEX in the initial hour of Thursday morning against the previous close of ₹13,205, down by 0.30 per cent.
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