Natural gas futures traded firm at Rs 202.5 per mmBtu on October 15 as participants increased their long positions. The commodity had declined 7.7 percent on the NYMEX on October 14.

Prices weakened as easing storm activity boosted LNG exports and also led to production restarts in the Gulf of Mexico.

Market participants are likely to take further cues from weekly natural gas data to be released by the US Energy Information Agency (EIA) later in the day.

In the futures market, natural gas for October delivery touched an intraday high of Rs 204.20 and a low of Rs 195 per mmBtu on the Multi-Commodity Exchange (MCX). So far in the current series, natural gas has touched a low of Rs 179.10 and a high of Rs 221.

Natural gas futures for October delivery gained Rs 5.40, or 2.74 percent, to Rs 202.70 per mmBtu at 14:24 hours IST on a business turnover of 7,434 lots.

The same for November delivery inched higher by Rs 4.5, or 1.91 percent, at Rs 240.30 per mmBtu on a business volume of 2,497 lots.

The value of October and November’s contracts traded so far is Rs 1,200.18 crore and Rs 60.54 crore, respectively.

“Natural gas may see sideways trade ahead of weekly inventory report. However, the overall bias is still on the downside,” Kotak Securities said.

Geojit Financial Services feels that as long as its support of Rs 194 holds, buying momentum will continue. “Else, there are chances of corrective selling pressure.”

At 08:58 (GMT), natural gas was up 4.25 percent at $2.78 per mmBtu in New York.