Natural gas futures up 0.47% in afternoon trade

Natural gas futures rose to Rs 128.40 per mmBtu on July 2 as participants increased their long positions.

The commodity is likely to take further cues from the US Energy Information Agency's weekly data to be released later in the day.

In the futures market, natural gas for July delivery touched an intraday high of Rs 131.10 and an intraday low of Rs 128.20 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 0.60, or 0.47 percent, to Rs 128.50 per mmBtu at 14:59 hours IST on a business turnover of 19,454 lots.

The same for August delivery edged higher by Rs 0.90, or 0.68 percent, to Rs 132.90 per mmBtu on a business volume of 1,225 lots.

The value of July and August contracts traded so far is Rs 739.04 crore and Rs 19.90 crore, respectively.

Natural gas has immediate resistance at Rs 132.70 whereas support is placed at Rs 125-122, according to Motilal Oswal.

At 09:31 (GMT), the natural gas was up 2.39 percent at $1.71 per mmBtu in New York.