Brent

Think of Brent the way you would think of a benchmark stock index, not a single stock, but a widely watched reference point that the entire market uses as a common language. Brent is the benchmark price for crude oil extracted from fields in the North Sea, and it has become the default reference price quoted for oil trades across most of the world, India included.

India does not actually consume much North Sea crude directly, it buys most of its oil from the Middle East, Russia and elsewhere, but contracts for that crude are still typically priced as a discount or premium to Brent, because Brent is liquid, transparent and traded around the clock on global exchanges. When a news anchor says crude oil rose today, they are almost always quoting Brent.

For an Indian investor, Brent matters less as a literal input cost and more as a directional signal, since a sharp move in Brent quickly ripples through India's own import bill, inflation numbers and the profitability of every oil marketing and refining company on the exchange.