“The outlook for oil prices remains volatile,” said the Asian Development Bank’s 2018 Outlook update released on Wednesday. In its latest oil market report, the International Energy Agency said global oil demand growth estimates for 2018 and 2019 are unchanged at 1.4 million barrels/day and 1.5 million barrels/day, respectively. Net oil imports have contributed to more than 40% of the trade deficit for India in the previous two fiscal years. Corporate India will suffer incrementally, as rising oil prices coupled with a depreciating rupee, will increase cost pressures for most domestic market producers. Shares of state-run oil producers such as Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd and Oil India Ltd have underperformed the BSE 100 index so far in FY19 despite the high oil prices.

Source: Mint September 27, 2018 05:48 UTC