Natural gas futures rise 0.31% in afternoon trade

Natural gas futures rose to Rs 129.80 per mmBtu on July 17 as participants increased their long positions on warm weather in parts of the US raising cooling demand but weaker US gas exports and rising coronavirus cases threatened to impact economic activity.

The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that US natural gas inventories jumped by 45 billion cubic feet (bcf) for the week-ended July 10.

In the futures market, natural gas for July delivery touched an intraday high and low of Rs 130.20 and Rs 129.50 per mmBtu, respectively, on the Multi-Commodity Exchange (MCX). So far in the current series, natural gas has touched a low of Rs 115.50 and a high of Rs 184.50.

Natural gas futures for July delivery gained Rs 0.40, or 0.31 percent, to Rs 129.80 per mmBtu at 14:38 hours IST on a business turnover of 19,802 lots.

The same for August jumped Rs 0.30, or 0.22 percent at Rs 134.30 per mmBtu on a business volume of 2,717 lots.

The value of July and August's contracts traded so far is Rs 321.33 crore and Rs 11.66 crore, respectively.

Natural gas may witness choppy trade amid mixed factors, however general bias may be on the downside owing to well supplied US market, according to Kotak Securities.

At 09:12 (GMT), the natural gas price was up 0.23 percent at $1.72 per mmBtu in New York.

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