OIL: Crude oil is sinking, what pairs+indices are most affected?

On Monday, oil hit a 20-year low, but as the day progressed, the situation only got worse. For the first time in history, the markets went negative as oil suppliers paid buyers to take barrels from them

The fall in oil has wider ramifications as many markets moved as a result of the historic price drop. From stocks and indices, to currency markets. Many nations that derive a substantial amount of their GDP from oil have seen their currencies move quite a bit as a result.

The ongoing virus situation has resulted in many casualties, death, national gridlock, mass unemployment and now the "death of oil".

Which markets have been most affected by this so far?

Forex

USD/RUB

In recent weeks, the fall in oil's price has made Russia one of the most affected countries. As the country's natural resources account for around 17% of its overall output, the fall in price has dealt a huge blow to its economy.

Monday's drop in oil prices saw the ruble rise from 72.8 to 75.9 against the dollar, the largest one-day rise against the dollar since last month, when panic over the new virus began to be felt. Since then, Russians have been somewhat forced to end the "oil war" with OPEC, Saudi Arabia in particular, but even the 10 million barrel cut in production agreed last week was not enough to stop the biggest price drop in history.

USD/CAD

Canada is another country that depends heavily on oil. The nation currently derives 29% of its output from oil-related revenues. The USD/CAD pair is generally one of the most widely traded currency pairs in the world, and in recent days, market volatility around this pair has continued to increase.

The pair rose from 1.399 to 1.425 in just a few hours, while the ruble experienced the same phenomenon.

Indices

The UK's FTSE100

The index's recent rallies also ended on news of the bearish oil situation. With both BP and Shell listed on the index, the fall in the share prices of both plants has resulted in losses on the overall index itself. After falling recently to 4750, the FTSE slowly recovered in recent weeks as investors saw the sale as an opportunity to buy cheap. However, news regarding oil has caused the markets to not only fail to break the price resistance of 5820, but to fall to a low of 5640 in the process.

Australia's AUS200

Another index that has exposure to major oil companies is the AUS200. With almost 6.5% of the companies in the index, these are energy companies such as BHP. This index has so far experienced the largest decline of any major global index to date. It has fallen from 5520 to 5150 in recent days due to the oil situation.