Natural gas futures up 0.52% in afternoon trade

Natural gas futures edged higher to Rs 134.40 per mmBtu on July 16 as participants increased their long positions.

Participants are likely to take a further cue from weekly natural gas data to be released by US Energy Information Agency later in the day.

In the futures market, natural gas for July delivery touched an intraday high of Rs 134.90 and an intraday low of Rs 133.90 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 delivery for July gained Rs 0.70, or 0.52 percent, to Rs 134.40 per mmBtu at 14:39 hours IST on a business turnover of 14,958 lots. The same for August delivery rose Rs 0.80, or 0.58 percent at Rs 138.10 per mmBtu on a business volume of 2,283 lots.

The value of July and August's contracts traded so far is Rs 313.39 crore and Rs 9.27 crore, respectively.

Natural gas will trade with positive bias as long as Rs 128-126 is held as support whereas resistance is seen at Rs 138-141, according to Motilal Oswal.

At 09:12 (GMT), the natural gas price was trading flat at $1.77 per mmBtu in New York.

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