Natural gas future rise 1.24% in afternoon trade

Natural gas futures rose to Rs 139.20 per mmBtu on July 31 as participants increased their long positions. The commodity slipped 5.2 percent on NYMEX on July 30 amid demand concerns, rising coronavirus cases and mixed weather forecast indicating limited cooling demand.

The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that US natural gas inventories jumped 26 billion cubic feet (bcf) for the week ended July 24.

In the futures market, natural gas for August delivery touched an intraday high of Rs 139.80 and a low of Rs 137.90 per mmBtu on the Multi-Commodity Exchange (MCX). So far in the current series, prices have touched a low of Rs 121.40 and a high of Rs 159.40.

Natural gas futures for August delivery gained Rs 1.70, or 1.24 percent, to Rs 139.30 per mmBtu at 14:54 hours IST on a business turnover of 12,099 lots. The same for September delivery jumped Rs 1.90, or 1.27 percent, to Rs 151.70 per mmBtu on a business volume of 1,247 lots.

The value of August and September contracts traded so far is Rs 370.88 crore and Rs 8.71 crore, respectively.

Natural gas is likely to trade with a positive bias for the session with support at Rs 134.50-131 and resistance at Rs 144.50-147, according to Motilal Oswal.

At 09:27 (GMT), the natural gas was trading up 1.48 percent at $1.85 per mmBtu in New York.