Crude surpasses $79

Prices rise on inventory report anticipation
Crude prices ended higher at Nymex on Tuesday, 27 October, 2009. Prices rose as traders anticipated that tomorrow's weekly inventory report will show drop in crude product inventories.
On Tuesday, crude-oil futures for light sweet crude for December delivery closed at $79.55/barrel (higher by $0.87 or 1%). Last week, crude ended higher by 3.4%.
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 58% since then. Year to date, in 2009, crude prices are higher by 57.8%.
In the currency market on Tuesday, the dollar index, which calculates the strength of the dollar against a basket of six other currencies reversed its course after dropping earlier during the day. Last week, it had dropped to fourteen month lows.
Among other energy related products, gasoline for November delivery rose 4 cents, or 1.9%, to $2.07 a gallon. November heating oil also rose 4 cents to $2.06 a gallon.
Also on Tuesday, Natural gas for November delivery rose 5 cents, or 1.1%, to $4.56 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 November delivery closed higher by Rs 11 (0.3%) at Rs 3,712/barrel. Natural gas for November delivery closed higher by Rs 2.8 (0.85%) at Rs 248.4/mmbtu.