Crude oil futures flat, WTI trades above $43 a barrel

Crude oil futures were steady at Rs 3,140 per barrel on September 2 as participants increased their long position as seen by the open interest. Crude oil prices gained on a drawdown in US crude stock and positive economic data from the US and China.

The American Petroleum Insitute (API) reported a 6.4-million-barrel drop in US crude inventories for the week ended August 28.

Tapan Patel- Senior Analyst (Commodities), HDFC Securities said, “Crude oil prices gained on positive global cues on better than expected manufacturing PMI data from US and China. Prices got additional support from bullish API inventory report which showed that crude oil stockpiles fell by 6.4 MB against a forecast of a decline of 1.9 MB.”

“NYMEX crude trades 0.3 percent higher near $42.88/bbl supported by API which noted a bigger than expected 6.36 million barrels decline in US crude oil stocks. However, weighing on price is the restart of production in the Gulf of Mexico region. Crude may remain range-bound to positive ahead of inventory report on expectations of another decline in US crude oil stocks,” Ravindra Rao, VP- Head Commodity Research at Kotak Securities.

In the futures market, crude oil for September delivery touched an intraday high of Rs 3,165 and an intraday low of Rs 3,138 per barrel on MCX. So far in the current series, black gold has touched a low of Rs 2,943 and a high of Rs 3,285.

Crude oil delivery for September slipped 0.16 percent to Rs 3,140 per barrel at 15:45 hours IST with a business turnover of 4,285 lots.

Crude oil delivery for October was down Rs 8, or 0.25 percent, to Rs 3,167 per barrel with a business volume of 31 lots.

The value of September and October’s contracts traded so far is Rs 398.17 crore and Rs 0.35 crore, respectively.

Patel expects oil prices to trade sideways to up for the day with support at $41 and resistance at $45. MCX Crude oil September futures have support at Rs 3,090 with resistance at Rs 3,210.

West Texas Intermediate crude gained 0.28 percent at $43.06 per barrel, while Brent crude, the London-based international benchmark was up 0.18 percent to $45.66 per barrel.