The Hindu Business Line : Rubber steady despite buyers turning cautious

SPOT rubber was steady on Wednesday. The absence of interest from major manufactures kept the prices stagnant though there was not any significant improvement in arrivals.

Covering groups and purchase agents were more cautious as the domestic futures was in a corrective phase probably on profit booking at higher levels.

Both at Kottayam and Kochi, sheet rubber closed flat at Rs 71.25 a kg. Transactions were narrow.

The NMCE rubber futures moved down with January contract quoting at Rs 71.80 (Rs 72.48), February at Rs 73.85 (Rs 74.22), March at Rs 75.05 (Rs 75.40) and April contract at Rs 76.20 (Rs 76.70) per kg for RSS 4. The January delivery contract for the grade was traded at Rs 71 against 71.84 a kg on MCX.

Trading volumes were 625 lots in NMCE - 294 lots in January, 159 lots in February, 133 lots in March and 39 lots in April till mid-session.

At TOCOM, the February futures for RSS 3 closed at 208.7 yen against 208 yen a kg while the same grade improved to Rs 78.10 from Rs 77.66 a kg at Bangkok.

Spot rates a kg were: RSS-4 Rs 71.25 (Rs 71.25); RSS-5 Rs 69.25 (Rs 69.25); ungraded Rs 67 (Rs 67); ISNR 20 Rs 68.50 (Rs 68.50); and latex 60 per cent Rs 50 (Rs 50).