Natural gas futures up 0.16% in afternoon trade

Natural gas futures rose to Rs 126.30 per mmBtu on July 23 as participants increased their long positions. The commodity gained 0.4 percent on NYMEX on July 22.

Market participants are is likely to take further cues from US Energy Information Agency (EIA) weekly data to be released later in the day.

In the futures market, natural gas for July delivery touched an intraday high of Rs 127.50 and an intraday low of Rs 126.10 per mmBtu 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 0.20, or 0.16 percent, to Rs 126.30 per mmBtu at 14:50 hours IST on a business turnover of 16,666 lots. The same for August delivery jumped Rs 0.10, or 0.08 percent, to Rs 129.70 per mmBtu on a business volume of 5,373 lots.

The value of July and August’s contracts traded so far is Rs 409.86 crore and Rs 33.30 crore, respectively.

Natural gas has intraday support at Rs 122-120 and resistance is at Rs 130-133, according to Motilal Oswal. The brokerage firm advised its clients to buy for the short term as long as price holds above Rs 120.

At 09:23 (GMT), the natural gas price was up 0.42 percent at $1.68 per mmBtu in New York.

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