Brent Crude traded near 114 dollars per barrel, at a 5-month high (at the time of filing this copy). The surge came amid renewed concerns over potential oil supply disruptions in the Middle East, raising fears of further volatility in global energy markets and the impact that could have on input costs, overall inflation and equity markets as well. Anant Ladha, Founder of Invest Aaj For Kal told Times Now Digital, “crude rates are a big risk for the Indian stock market. India imports majority of crude and if crude prices are high, input cost of all the companies go for a toss and we see that it will directly impact the EPS growth rate and the earning profitability of the companies. Markets are slaves of earnings and if something is affecting earnings, it will affect equity markets as well. So crude is a bigger risk for Indian market as compared to interest rates, which are rising in the US. So we’ll have to understand this right now. Crude is trading past 113 dollars per barrel, so till the time we don’t see it going below 90 or 85 dollars per barrel, it will always be a headwind whenever stock markets will try to rise.” Going forward, analysts remain cautious amid elevated crude oil prices and geopolitical tensions.