Oil prices

"Keeping in view the ongoing sales trend, we foresee product (petrol, diesel) availability challenges in various pockets of the country in days to come due to inadequate imports and limited local avails," said the OCAC, a representative body of the oil sector in the country.

Tax on domestically produced crude oil was brought down to Rs 9,500 per tonne from Rs 11,000, effective November 2, a notification said. Windfall tax on jet fuel was increased to Rs 5 per litre, from Rs 3.50 per litre. The government also hiked the levy on export of diesel to Rs 13 per litre from Rs 12 per litre.  The government on Tuesday exempted oil seeds and edible oil wholesalers as well as big chain retailers from the current stock limit order, with immediate effect.

"A salary disagreement does not justify blocking the country," Borne told the National Assembly. "To refuse to discuss is to make the French the victims of an absence of dialogue." According to Borne, 30 per cent of the country's gas stations have already run out of at least one type of fuel, with the Greater Paris region one of the worst affected, Xinhua news agency reported.

The rupee opened at Rs 81.52 on Thursday at the interbank forex market and then went down to Rs 81.94. Experts said demand for dollars from oil importers resulted in a fall in rupee. The oil prices are expected to climb up as the producing nations have announced their plans to cut production.

The reduction equals around 2 per cent of this year's global oil demand, which is estimated by OPEC at around 100 million bpd, Xinhua news agency reported. According to the statement, the decision was made "in light of the uncertainty that surrounds the global economic and oil market outlooks, and the need to enhance the long-term guidance for the oil market, and in line with the successful approach of being proactive, and preemptive".

According to a Finance Ministry notification, export duty on aviation turbine fuel (ATF) has been hiked to Rs 2 per litre from zero. At the same time, a Rs 2 hike was effected on export duty on diesel to Rs 7 per litre from Rs 5 per litre. All these changes will come into effect from August 19.

At 1.42 p.m., yield on 6.54 per cent -2032 bond were trading at 7.1696 per cent, sharply down from its previous close on 7.2894 per cent on Friday. Indian financial markets were closed on Monday and Tuesday on account of Independence Day and Parsi New year, respectively. "Easing crude oil prices and inflation print resulted in falling yields on bonds today," a dealer with a state-owned bank said.

Pointing out the increase in oil prices to $120/barrel in June after Russia's invasion of Ukraine and its fall to $100/barrel in August Moody's Analytic said: "This trend will continue; we expect crude prices to fall to almost $70 a barrel by the end of next year. For the APAC region's big oil importers, notably Singapore and Hong Kong, this will ease pinching price pressures," Moody's Analytics said. According to Moody's Analytics, the impact of oil price increase has been varied for the APAC region.

The oil alliance said on Thursday in its monthly report that the world economy is expected to grow by 3.1 per cent in 2022, compared to its forecast of 3.5 per cent in the previous three months. Explaining the downward revision, OPEC cited "weaker second-quarter growth in the major economies and an observed soft trend in some key economies". In its May report, OPEC had already lowered its forecast for global economic growth this year from 3.9 to 3.5 per cent. This projection was maintained until July, Xinhua news agency reported.

"Some exporter flows and oil demand kept the pair steady. Speculators were on sidelines ahead of the US inflation report scheduled later in the evening. Over the near term, we expect USD-INR to remain rangebound between 79.00 and 80.00 levels on spot," said Anindya Banerjee, VP, Currency Derivatives & Interest Rate Derivatives, at Kotak Securities Ltd.