Crude oil prices in the international markets cooled down to a 13-month low as fears of subdued demand in China amid the outbreak of the coronavirus weighed heavily on the global markets.
Oil prices fell to the lowest in more than a year on Monday, dragged by concern over demand in China after the coronavirus outbreak. Brent crude was down $1.82 at $54.80 a barrel by 11.33 am EST (16.33 GMT), the lowest since January last year.
Crude oil prices in the international markets cooled down to a 13-month low as fears of subdued demand in China amid the outbreak of the Coronavirus weighed heavily on the global markets.
Oil prices fell to the lowest in more than a year on Monday, dragged by concern over demand in China after the coronavirus outbreak. Brent crude was down $1.82 at $54.80 a barrel by 11:33 am EST (1633 GMT), the lowest since January last year.
As per a report, the world’s biggest crude oil importer, refiner Sinopec Corp, plans to cut throughput in February by about 600,000 barrels per day (bpd), or 12%, the steepest cut in more than a decade.
This coupled with the fact that budget hangover is over, propelled Indian equity markets on Tuesday to wipe out the Budget day losses surging by 2.3%.
The 30-share index of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) -- BSE --opened in green and continued to witness heavy buying throughout the day. The index closed at the pre-budget level of 40,789.38, gaining 917.07 points (2.30%).
The overall market breadth was also heavily positive -- with 1,618 advances, as against 885 declines. As the markets witnessed heavy levels of buying, the wealth of equity investors surged by a whopping Rs 2.86 lakh crore.
Similarly, the broader exchange, 50-share NSE Nifty surged by 271.75 points (2.32%) to 11,979.65 points.
All the sectoral indices on the NSE closed on the green after the day’s trade. Metal (3.32%), Financial Services (2.87%) and Realty (2.77%) were the biggest gainers during the day’s trade.
“With the Budget overhang gone, investors are breathing a sigh of relief and are back to make fresh calls. Additionally, January auto sales numbers were comparatively decent and with no other negative news, the Indian bourses saw a sudden rally,” said Umesh Mehta, Head of Research at Samco Securities. Investor sentiment also got a fillip from the manufacturing sector rising to an eight-year high in January. The widely-tracked IHS Markit India Manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose from 52.7 in December to 55.3 in January.
Similarly, the rupee has extended the morning gains and trading higher at 71.15 per dollar. However, the rupee pared most of its gains and closed with a gain of 6 paise against the greenback at 71.25.