Crude oil futures firm at Rs 3,750; WTI trades above $51 a barrel

Source: Reuters

Crude oil futures surged to more than 10-month high of Rs 3,770 per barrel on the MCX since February 21. Crude oil price rose after Saudi Arabia unexpected pledged to cut additional production, rally in global equity markets and a sharp decline in US crude stockpiles.

Crude oil prices were boosted by the Democrats' victory in Georgia election giving them control of both the chambers of Congress enabling US President-elect Joe Biden to spend more freely.

Tapan Patel- Senior Analyst (Commodities), HDFC Securities said, “Crude oil prices traded higher with benchmark NYMEX WTI crude oil were trading half a percent up to $51.12 per barrel on Friday. MCX Crude oil January futures were trading up to Rs 3,758 by noon session.”

“Crude oil prices extending weekly gains on Saudi output cut pledge and demand growth optimism. The rally in equity indices also supported oil prices to trade high for the day. We expect crude oil prices to trade sideways to up with support at $49 and resistance at $52. MCX Crude oil January has support at Rs 3,690, resistance at Rs 3,790”, Patel noted.

MCX iCOMDEX Crude Oil Index inched up 14.83 points, or 0.35 percent, at 4,277.27 at 16:01.

In the futures market, crude oil for January delivery touched an intraday high of Rs 3,770 and an intraday low of Rs 3,738 per barrel on MCX. So far in the current series, black gold has touched a low of Rs 3,130 and a high of Rs 3,770.

Crude oil delivery for January rose Rs 12, or 0.32 percent, to Rs 3,750 per barrel at 16:02 hours IST with a business turnover of 2,656 lots.

Crude oil delivery for February gained Rs 2, or 0.05 percent, to Rs 3,741 per barrel with a business volume of 12 lots.

The value of January and February’s contracts traded so far is Rs 242.09 crore and Rs 0.07 crore, respectively.

West Texas Intermediate crude was up 0.73 percent quoting at $51.20 per barrel, while Brent crude, the London-based international benchmark soared 0.90 percent to $54.87 per barrel.

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