Crude ends marginally lower

Prices drop but recover from intra day low level

Crude prices ended marginally lower at Nymex on Tuesday, 29 September, 2009. But prices managed to come off their intra day lows. Mixed batch of economic reports weighed on the crude prices.

On Tuesday, crude-oil futures for light sweet crude for November delivery closed at $66.71/barrel (lower by $0.13 or 0.2%). During intra day trading, prices fell to a low of $65.82 and also rose to a high of $67.33. Last week, crude ended lower by 8%.

For the month of August, 2009, crude ended higher by a marginal 0.7%. For the second quarter, crude ended higher by 40%. Crude prices had rallied 11.3% in the first quarter of 2009.

Oil prices had reached a high of $147 on 11 July, 2008 but have dropped almost 65% since then. Year to date, in 2009, crude prices are higher by 41%.

The Conference Board in USA reported on Tuesday, 29 September, 2009 that the U.S. consumer confidence index fell in September as Americans grew more concerned about the economy, their job prospects and their incomes. The consumer confidence index fell to 53.1 in September from 54.5 in August, reversing part of August's nearly seven-point gain.

In the currency market on Tuesday, the dollar remained extremely volatile. The dollar gained ground especially against the Japanese currency after the nation's finance minister hinted at the possibility of intervention to arrest the yen's rise. The dollar index, which measures the strength of dollar against a basket of other currencies, rose by almost 0.2%.

Among other energy products on Tuesday, gasoline for October delivery fell 0.8 cents to $1.63 a gallon. Heating oil for October rose 0.9 cents to $1.70 a gallon.

Also on Tuesday, natural gas rose, with the new front-month November contract up 5 cents, or 1%, to $4.88 per million British thermal units.

Crude prices had ended FY 2008 lower by 54%, the largest yearly loss since trading began at Nymex.

At the MCX, crude oil for October delivery closed lower by Rs 28 (0.9%) at Rs 3,210/barrel. Natural gas for October delivery closed higher by Rs 6.8 (2.9%) at Rs 237.7/mmbtu.