Last Updated : March 10, 2010 14:55

MCX crude oil trades tad lower

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MUMBAI (Commodity Online): Crude Oil futures traded marginally lower in the morning session Wednesday as trades abandoned the session due to the volatility in the international crude prices.

MCX Crude oil futures for March trades at Rs 3707 per barrel, down Rs 16 from the previous close or 0.43% with 5.44% drop in the open interest. The Rs 3700 levels are holding well as expected as the counter has rebounded from a low of Rs 3703 per barrel.

Light, sweet crude for April delivery settled down 38 cents, or 0.5%, at $81.49 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The counter currently trades at $81.51, up 2 cents from the previous close after trading as low as $81.05 per barrel.

The US dollar is trading around 1.3600 and Asian markets are mostly mixed. Crude may eye $81 as the watershed level for the electronic session and the inventories data would make the MCX day session a narrowly traded outing for the commodity.

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Crude oil April contracts on NYMEX closed yesterday at $81.49 with a loss of 0.46 percent. DOE report tomorrow is likely to show oil inventories rising by 2 million barrels while distillate inventories are expected to decline by 1 million barrels and Gasoline inventories remain unchanged.

Economic data from Germany may show rising trade balance which indicates that money is coming into the German economy which is expected to be positive for German economy and will help in providing a lift to the European economy as a whole and oil prices too.

Rising consumer prices may show the increased presence of inflation which may also result in oil prices to trade lower due to a weakening euro versus the dollar.US data in the evening may show rising whole sale inventories which are expected to weigh on the US economic activity and subsequently on oil market.

DOE data tomorrow which is expected to show rising inventories may also act negative for oil prices. However refinery utilization will be a closely watched factor.