Natural gas futures slip 0.86% in afternoon trade

Natural gas futures declined to Rs 127.40 per mmBtu on July 20 as participants increased their short positions. Prices slipped 4.8 percent on NYMEX last week after it failed to sustain above $1.8/mmBtu levels.

The commodity came under pressure due to high US gas stocks and rising coronavirus cases in the US, which threaten to derail economic activity.

The number of rigs drilling for natural gas in the US decreased by four to 71.

In the futures market, natural gas for July delivery touched an intraday high of Rs 128.10 and an intraday low of Rs 127.10 per mmBtu on 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 slipped Rs 1.10, or 0.86 percent, to Rs 127.40 per mmBtu at 14:36 hours IST on a business turnover of 20,386 lots.

The same for August delivery eased Rs 1.10, or 0.83 percent at Rs 131.20 per mmBtu on a business volume of 3,243 lots.

The value of July and August's contracts traded so far is Rs 294.98 crore and Rs 15.24 crore, respectively.

"Natural gas may witness choppy trade amid mixed factors. However, the general bias may be on the downside, unless there are fresh triggers," Kotak Securities said.

At 09:10 (GMT), natural gas was trading down 1.28 percent at $1.69 per mmBtu in New York.

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