Crude Oil Ends Unchanged on Thursday Session

Crude Oil Ends Unchanged on Thursday Session

Crude oil prices were little changed Thursday morning after the European Central Bank announced it would implement the planned expansion of its asset purchasing program. At the same time, the ECB held steady on interest rates. WTI June crude oil was down 2 cents at $44.16, keeping most gains from a furious rally that took prices to their highest in 2016.

Indian Crude Oil May futures were down by Rs 19 per barrel and ended at Rs 2900 per barrel; in a single session. From current, a high of Rs 2950 and 3000 per barrel is on cards for Crude Oil as next level of resistance.

A weaker dollar and data suggesting increased demand from China helped prevent a pull back. China said Thursday that crude-oil imports in March totaled 7.7 million barrels a day, up 21.6% from a year earlier.

Crude lackluster performance ended in a single day as MCX futures saw a leap of almost 4% to reach Rs 2919 per barrel, a level not seen since August 2015. The sharp spike was a ripple effect of Crude Oil rising in the NYMEX markets to new 2016 highs. The undercurrent became bullish soon after the news hit the markets that Crude Oil inventories increased less than expected.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported a 2.1 million-barrel climb in crude-oil supplies for the week ended April 15. That`s less than the 3 million-barrel increase reported by industry watcher API. June WTI oil gained $1.71, or 4%, to settle at $44.18/bbl.

The markets of Crude Oil has become such that every trigger of hope will be bought ferociously by the traders, no matter how small it may be. Prices rallied even though Kuwait oil workers ended their 3-day strike. Also, there was no deal reached over the weekend to freeze oil supplies from Saudi Arabia and Russia.