Crude closes shy of $80

Prices rise as the dollar drops

Crude prices ended higher on Tuesday, 02 March, 2010. Prices rose as the dollar slipped against the euro increasing commodities' appeal against an alternate investment.

On Tuesday, crude-oil futures for light sweet crude for April delivery closed at $79.68/barrel (higher by $0.98 or 1.2%). During intra day trading, crude rose to a high of $80.62.

In the currency market on Tuesday, the dollar weakened against the euro. The dollar index dropped by almost 0.4%.

Also on Tuesday, natural-gas futures for April delivery shed an earlier, modest loss to gain 3 cents, or 0.6%, to $4.708 per million British thermal units.

Crude ended FY 2009 higher by 78%, the highest yearly gain since 1999. It reached a high of $82 earlier in October 2009 and hit a low of $33.98 on 12 February 2009. Oil prices had reached a high of $147 on 11 July, 2008 but have dropped almost 45% since then. Crude prices had ended FY 2008 lower by 54%, the largest yearly loss since trading began at Nymex.

At the MCX, crude oil for February delivery closed Rs 78 (2.1%) higher at Rs 3,702/barrel. Natural gas for March delivery closed unchanged at Rs 217/mmbtu.