Oil prices

Several catalysts went into the $150 price warning, including capacity shocks, an energy supercycle—and of course, efforts to push the world further away from fossil fuels.

Brent crude, the international benchmark, pushed over $95 per barrel on Tuesday, the highest since November 2022, The Guardian reported.

Although the RBI has been releasing dollars in the market to prop up the rupee this has not been able to stem the slide of the Indian currency as the country imports around 85 per cent of its crude oil requirement for which immediate payments have to be made in dollars.

Brent crude was trading above $94 per barrel at the time of writing while West Texas Intermediate flirted with the $91 per barrel mark, Oil Price reported.

Concern over valuations and inflation trajectory due to increasing oil prices may navigate the market into a consolidation phase in the near-term, he added

Rising crude prices positively impact oil exporters and negatively impact oil importing countries like India. Consequently, this depreciates the INR and leads to imported inflation, he said.

Russia extended its voluntary decision to curb crude exports by 300,000 bpd until December 2023, acting in concert with Saudi Arabia, with the alleged aim of maintaining stability and balance in the oil markets.

In April, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) plus allies including Russia had pledged to slash output by more than 1.6 million barrels a day through the end of the year in a bid to lift falling oil prices, CNN reported.

Silver and gold prices also rose by 8 per cent and 3 per cent, respectively.

Basic import duty on refined soyabean oil and refined sunflower Oil reduced from 17.5 per cent to 12.5 per cent. The move will augment earlier measures taken by the government to reduce the prices of edible oils in the domestic market. The basic import duty is an important factor which impacts the landed cost of edible oils which in turn affects the domestic prices.