Natural gas futures declined to Rs 193 per mmBtu, on March 12, as participants increased their short positions as seen by the open interest. Natural gas price had fallen 0.9 percent yesterday on the NYMEX.

The energy extended decline in the afternoon after a gap-up started tracking weak global trends.

The commodity has been trading lower than 5, 20, 50 and 100 days’ moving averages but higher than the 200-day moving average on a daily chart. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) is at 40.07 which indicates bearish momentum in prices.

The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that US natural gas inventories dropped by 52 billion cubic feet (Bcf) for the week ended March 5 against market expectation of an 85 Bcf decline. Natural gas in storage was 1,793 Bcf as of Friday.

Kotak Securities said after a sharp fall in the last few days, natural gas has turned range bound and this trend may continue as market players positions for the low demand spring season.

Sriram Iyer, Senior Research Analyst at Reliance Securities said, “International natural gas futures have started flat this Friday morning and turned negative in the early afternoon in Asian trade. Technically, NYMEX Natural Gas could trade in a range of $2.50-2.85 levels.”

MCX March Natural Gas holds resistance near Rs 198-202 levels and supports near Rs 193-191 levels, he said.

MCX iCOMDEX Natural Gas Index fell 10.53 points or 0.41 percent to 2,542.71.

In the futures market, natural gas for March delivery touched an intraday high of Rs 195.40 and an intraday low of Rs 192.20 per mmBtu on MCX. So far in the current series, natural gas has touched a low of Rs 175 and a high of Rs 222.20.

Natural gas delivery for March slipped Rs 0.80, or 0.41 percent, to Rs 193 per mmBtu at 14:30 hours IST with a business turnover of 11,722 lots.

Natural gas delivery for April eased Rs 0.70, or 0.36 percent, to Rs 196.30 per mmBtu with a business volume of 2,749 lots.

The value of March and April’s contracts traded so far is Rs 674.16 crore and Rs 33.14 crore, respectively.

Kshitij Purohit, Product Manager, Currency & Commodities, CapitalVia Global Research Limited said, “Natural gas has support at Rs 191 levels below it may come down to Rs 186 levels while the resistance for energy is at Rs 197.

At 09:02 (GMT), the natural gas price was down 0.79 percent quoting at $2.64 per mmBtu in New York.