The Hindu Business Line : Rubber improves on covering purchases

PHYSICAL rubber prices showed a better trend on Friday. According to sources, the market was reacting to the covering purchases at lower levels following a marginal recovery in international rubber futures.

Covering groups and purchase agents turned active as sellers kept a low profile expecting for the prices to improve further towards the weekend.

Sheet rubber RSS 4 closed at Rs 68.50 a kg both at Kottayam and Kochi against Rs 67.75 and Rs 68 a kg on Thursday.

NMCE rubber futures recorded moderate gains with January contract ending at Rs 69.55 (Rs 68.83), February at Rs 71.30 (Rs 70.37), March at Rs 72.30 (Rs 71.34) and April at Rs 74.09 (Rs 71.70) a kg for RSS 4. The volumes totalled 1243 lots, with 593 lots in January, 226 lots in February, 380 lots in March and 44 lots in April till mid session.

The January futures for RSS 3 improved to 193.9 yen from 190.8 yen a kg at TOCOM. The same grade lost 11 paise to close at Rs 77.26 a kg against Rs 77.37 a kg at Bangkok.

Physical prices a kg were: RSS-4: Rs 68.50 (Rs 67.75); RSS-5: Rs 66.25 (Rs 65.50); ungraded: Rs 64.50 (Rs 64); ISNR 20: Rs 66 (Rs 65.50) and latex 60%: Rs 49 (Rs 48.50).