Natural gas futures steady at Rs 176.40 per mmBtu in afternoon trade

Natural gas futures were steady at Rs 176.40 per mmBtu on September 10 as participants increased their long positions. The commodity had gained 0.3 percent on the NYMEX on September 9.

Market participants are likely to take 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 September delivery touched an intraday high of Rs 176.90 and a low of Rs 174.90 per mmBtu on the Multi-Commodity Exchange (MCX). So far in the current series, natural gas has touched a low of Rs 131.30 and a high of Rs 203.

Natural gas for September delivery gained Rs 0.20, or 0.11 percent, to Rs 176.40 per mmBtu at 14:30 hours IST on a business turnover of 15,359 lots. The same for October delivery slipped Rs 1.5, or 0.71 percent, at Rs 211.20 per mmBtu on a business volume of 2,485 lots.

The value of September and October’s contracts traded so far is Rs 709.83 crore and Rs 22.49 crore, respectively.

"Natural gas may remain sideways to positive ahead of the inventory report. Apart from inventory, the focus will be on US weather, storm activity in the Atlantic and trend in energy price," said Kotak Securities.

At 09:12 (GMT), the commodity slipped 0.33 percent at $2.39 per mmBtu in New York.