Crude tops $70

Prices manage to eke out gains

Crude prices ended higher at Nymex on Monday, 05 October, 2009. Prices rose following a better than expected economic data in the service sector. The weak dollar also came to crude's rescue.

On Monday, crude-oil futures for light sweet crude for November delivery closed at $70.41/barrel (higher by $0.46 or 0.71%). During intra day trading, it fell to a low of $68.05. Last week, crude ended higher by 6%.

For the month of September, 2009, crude ended higher by a marginal 0.9%. For the third quarter, crude ended higher by just 1%. Crude prices had rallied 40% and 11.3% in the second and first quarter of 2009 respectively.

Oil prices had reached a high of $147 on 11 July, 2008 but have dropped almost 66% since then. Year to date, in 2009, crude prices are higher by 43.3%.

The Institute for Supply Management reported on Monday, 05 October, 2009 that the service sectors of the United States expanded in September for the first time in a year. As per the report, the ISM non-manufacturing index rose to 50.9% from 48.4% in August. This is the highest level since May 2008 and the first time in a year that the index was above the break-even 50% mark.

In the currency market on Monday, the dollar index, which measures the strength of dollar against a basket of other currencies, fell by almost 1%. The US Dollar Index traded in negative territory all session, which provided modest price support to some commodities this morning. The dollar fell after finance ministers from the Group of Seven nations made no specific mention of the currency in a communiqué at their weekend meeting.

Among other energy products on Monday, November reformulated gasoline rose 1 cent, or 1%, to $1.75 a gallon and November heating oil gained slightly to $1.79 a gallon.

Also on Monday, November natural-gas futures rose 28 cents, or 6%, to $4.99 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 higher by Re 1(0.02%) at Rs 3,349/barrel. Natural gas for October delivery closed higher by Rs 9.7 (4.3%) at Rs 235.5/mmbtu.