The Hindu Business Line : Rubber rules firm

COVERING at lower levels kept sheet rubber slightly firm at the weekend session. Most of the grades were almost flat with low trading volumes as traders were not interested to make fresh commitments in a rather weak market. Both at Kottayam and Kochi, sheet rubber RSS 4 improved to Rs 70.50 from Rs 70 a kg on Friday.

According to sources, major manufacturers were not active during the week. The inflow of the raw material from the producing sector continued to be dull as most of them believe that RSS 4 will touch Rs 80 within a couple of months.

The NMCE rubber futures suffered marginal losses on Saturday. The January delivery contract finished at Rs 71.29 (71.62), February contract at Rs 73.03 (73.19), March contract at Rs 74.47 (76.69) and April delivery contract at Rs 76.15 (76.18) per kg for RSS 4.

The transactions totalled 738lots, registering 359 lots in January, 237 lots in February, 105 lots in March and 37 lots in April.

Spot rates a kg were: RSS-4: Rs 70.50 (70) ; RSS-5: Rs 68.50 (68.50);

ungraded: Rs 67 (66.75); ISNR 20: Rs 68.25 (68.25); and latex 60 per cent: Rs 50 (50).