Friday, February 28, 2020

Lower crude prices not necessarily good for economy and markets



In past few days many market experts have highlighted that the recent fall in crude prices is a major positive for Indian economy. Through my interactions with some investors I learned that many investors do take the publically expressed random opinions of these experts quite seriously and actually base their decisions on these.
Besides, small investors are also usually seen following the actions large celebrity investors. Even in recent past, there have been many instances where small investors have emulated the actions of large investor buying a meaningful stake in a stressed asset.
From the regulatory standpoint there is no violation in both these cases. The market experts are free to publically express their opinions and views about the market trends and events. The companies, stock exchanges and investors are in fact obligated to make public disclosure of large secondary market deals. But there could be an ethical lacuna in these practices.
For example, one reputed fund manager, who presently runs an investment management and advisory firm and had been CIO of one of the top AMCs in the country, recently tweeted "$40 for crude in 2020 coming soon. Big positive for India!"
Obviously he made this assertion in zest and may not have any particular design in mind while writing this tweet at midnight. However, his numerous followers may find it an "advice" and accordingly act upon it.
It would therefore be better if the "experts" had also highlight that crude prices usually have positive correlation with India's GDP growth. In past 20yrs, all three episodes of sharp rise in crude prices have resulted in rising trend in India's GDP growth rate, and vice versa.
  • 2004-2007: Brent Crude prices jumped from under $30/bbl to over $140/bbl. In this period India's GDP growth accelerated from about 3% (FY03) to 9.5% (FY08).
  • 2010-2012: Brent crude prices again jumped from $40/bbl to $$120/bbl. In this period, India's GDP growth improved from 5.5% in FY13 to 8.25% in FY12.
  • 2016-2017: Brent crude prices jumped from below $30/bbl to over $80/bbl. In this period also India's GDP growth improved from 7.5% in FY15 to 7.75% in FY17.
    It would be pertinent to note that crude prices fall in response to demand slowdown. A fall in crude prices has not particularly shown to be pushing the growth higher. Besides, the Indian markets have not shown any significant correlation with the rude prices in the past.
    Lower crude prices hurt many businesses like oil & gas producers and oil marketing companies.
    Lower crude prices hurt state revenues (excise and customs) which are ad valorem to crude prices. Since the fuel pricing is not market driven and subsidies have been virtually eliminated, the offsetting positive impact on fiscal in form of lower subsidies is no longer available.
    Moreover, if the crude prices are falling due to demand slowdown, the benefit to the consumer industries is limited as they are not able to increase production at lower cost. So lower crude prices may help in protecting margins to some extent during the demand slowdown period, but may not necessarily result in higher profits.
    It may be noted that sharp fall in crude prices in 2008-09 and 2014-16 did not result in any major gains for Indian stock markets.

Brent-Nifty.jpeg

5 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing the best information and suggestions, I love your content, and they are very nice and very useful to us. If you are looking for the best Oil & Gas Product Design, then visit KHolder Development. I appreciate the work you have put into this.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oil is used in everything from automobiles to airplanes to commercial launderers, to heavy industrial plants. And dealing with the residue it can leave requires the appropriate oil solvent. Oil solvents can be looked at as wrestlers, tackling oils, pinning them, and breaking them down. Matthew Fleeger is a Dallas-based businessman

    ReplyDelete
  3. The energy needs of people worldwide are primarily oil, coal and natural gas. Major supplier of oil and natural gas are the Gulf countries. In the last decade, the rights of persons in the world has been affected as crude oil and natural gas rates have soared many times. This has made the economic rights of people in countries like America, China and India that are large importer. In the next decade, oil and natural gas consumption should increase by several times. In the near future, shale gas energy is to protect the rights of people to make energy available at reasonable rates. Matthew Fleeger

    ReplyDelete
  4. When you flush your toilet or run water down a drain, where does it go? Most people are vaguely aware that there are municipal water treatment systems in their community, but they don't know what processes the wastewater is put through in order to purify it. Industrial, business, and residential liquid wastes all run down sewers which then route them to facilities where they are cleaned up and made ready for use again. Matthew Fleeger profile

    ReplyDelete