Natural gas futures up 0.55% in afternoon trade

Natural gas futures rose to Rs 123.40 per mmBtu on July 21 as participants increased their long positions. Prices has declined 4.5 percent on NYMEX on July 21.

The commodity is under pressure due to rising coronavirus cases in the US, higher gas stock and weaker demand for US gas exports.

In the futures market, natural gas for July delivery touched an intraday high and low of Rs 124.50 and Rs 122.50 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 0.30, or 0.24 percent, to Rs 123.50 per mmBtu at 14:35 hours IST on a business turnover of 21,229 lots. The same for August delivery rose Rs 0.70, or 0.55 percent, to Rs 127.50 per mmBtu on a business volume of 5,057 lots.

The value of July and August’s contracts traded so far is Rs 451.03 crore and Rs 29.16 crore, respectively.

"Despite the sharp decline in gas in last few days, prices are still within the broad range seen for last few weeks. Hence, it is likely that price may take some support near $1.6 mmBtu levels. One needs to wait for the corrective rebound to create fresh short positions," Kotak Securities said.

At 09:09 (GMT), the natural gas price was up 0.61 percent at $1.65 per mmBtu in New York.