Natural gas futures were steady on August 31 after hitting a new 52-week high yesterday on the MCX as participants increased their long position as seen by the open interest. The gas prices had tumbled 1.9 percent yesterday on the NYMEX.
The energy commodity traded flat to negative throughout the day after a gap-down start, tracking the subdued global trend.
On the MCX, natural gas delivery for September was unchanged at Rs 315.70 per mmBtu at 14:31 hours with a business turnover of 15,395 lots.
Gas delivery for October gained Rs 0.30, or 0.09 percent, to Rs 320.60 per mmBtu with a business volume of 4,053 lots.
The value of September and October's contracts traded so far is Rs 972.36 crore and Rs 67.66 crore, respectively.
MCX iCOMDEX Natural Gas Index mildly lower 3.64 points or 0.09 percent to 3,834.98.
Kshitij Purohit, Product Manager, Currency & Commodities, CapitalVia Global Research Limited said, “Natural gas prices have fallen as traders profited from Hurricane Ida’s landfall. The hurricane has halted natural gas exports from the United States Gulf of Mexico. The temperature is predicted to stay warmer than normal and getting natural gas out of the Gulf will take time because the state’s electricity is out.”
According to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, approximately 93.57 percent of Gulf of Mexico production has been closed.
Technicals
The commodity has been trading higher than 5, 20, 50, 100, and 200 days' simple moving averages and exponential moving averages on the daily chart. The momentum indicator RSI is at 63.96, which suggests strength in the price.
Natural gas has rallied sharply in reaction to storm activity. However, the situation is improving and this has made it vulnerable to profit-taking hence we suggest waiting for corrective dips before creating fresh long positions, said Kotak Securities.
At 0927 GMT, the natural gas price was up 0.14 percent at $4.31 per mmBtu in New York.
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