Petrol and diesel prices maintained its northward rally on Wednesday, the ninth consecutive day, when its retail prices have risen across the country, with global oil market on the boil and both crude and product prices seeing a major spike. Accordingly, oil marketing companies raised the pump price of petrol and diesel by another 25 paise per litre in Delhi. With this increase, petrol is now priced at Rs 89.54 a litre and diesel Rs 79.95 a litre in the national capital. In the last nine days (since February 9), the price has gone up by Rs 2.59 per litre for petrol while diesel rate has risen by Rs 2.82 a litre. Across the country as well the petrol and diesel price increase ranged from 24-27 paise per litre depending on the level of local taxes on the two petroleum products. In Mumbai, petrol prices is just Rs 4 per litre short of touching the three-digit mark of Rs 100 per litre for the very first time ever anywhere in the country. Diesel prices in the city is closing on Rs 90 a litre (Rs 86.98 a litre). In all other metros, petrol is over Rs 90 a litre while diesel is well over Rs 80 a litre barring Delhi. Premium petrol has crossed Rs 100 per litre mark in several cities of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. The increase on Wednesday has followed the firming of global oil prices (both product and crude) that have maintained record streak of gains in past few days with crude reaching close to $63.5 a barrel mark. Since fuel prices are bench-marked to a 15-day rolling average of global refined products' prices and dollar exchange rate, pump prices can be expected to remain northbound over the next few days even if crude hovers at the current level. The petrol and diesel prices have increased 21 times in 2021 with the two auto fuels increasing by Rs 5.83 and Rs 6.08 per litre respectively so far this year. Oil companies executives said that petrol and diesel prices may increase further in coming days as retail prices may have to be balanced in line with global developments to prevent OMCs from making loss on sale of auto fuels.