Crude oil traded lower with the Brent futures trading below the $87-mark on Monday morning, as the market feared increasing Covid cases in China may lead to further tightening of control measures in that country.
At 10 am on Monday, January Brent oil futures were at $86.75, down by 0.99 per cent, and January crude oil futures on WTI were at $79.44, down by 0.84 per cent.
December crude oil futures were trading at ₹6,547 on Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) in the early trade against the previous close of ₹6,503, up by 0.68 per cent, and December futures were trading at ₹6,560, up by 0.44 per cent.
Two deaths reported
According to a Reuters report, China reported 26,824 new Covid cases on Sunday, almost near to the Aprill peak.
China is a major crude oil importer and the strict Covid control measures have hit the demand.
There are also apprehensions in the market over a possible interest rate hike by central banks in some major economies. Market reports noted that such measures could lead the global economy into recession impacting the demand for commodities such as crude oil.
Cotton declines, guar gum gains
November cotton futures were trading at ₹31,700 on MCX in the initial trading hours of Monday against the previous close of ₹32,240, down by 1.67 per cent.
On the National Commodities and Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX), the December steel long contracts were trading at ₹44,600 in the initial trade against the previous close of ₹42,690, up by 4.47 per cent.
December guar gum futures were trading at ₹12,960 on NCDEX in the early trade against the previous close of ₹12,437, up by 4.21 per cent.

Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.