The Hindu Business Line : Spot rubber slips below Rs 85/kg

Panic selling from dealers and growers kept spot rubber under immense pressure on Thursday. The market recorded heavy losses towards mid-session as there were no quantity buyers on any grade even at lower levels.

Continuous declines in global futures for the fourth consecutive day dampened the sentiments of the sellers, dealers said. Sheet rubber nose-dived to Rs 83.00 against Rs 86.00 a kg both at Kottayam and Kochi, while the remaining grades including latex were also quoted far below the previous closing prices.

Futures dip

The rubber futures fell further adopting the overseas trends on NMCE. The September contract was quoted at Rs 85.89 (Rs 87.23), October at Rs 78.49 (Rs 81.24), November at Rs 77.99 (Rs 81.36) and December at Rs 79.00 (Rs 81.74) per kg for RSS 4.

At TOCOM, the October contract for RSS 3 closed extremely weak at 209 Yen (Rs 82.58) against 215.3 Yen a kg. The grade fell sharply to Rs 83.58 a kg from Rs 87.92 at Bangkok spot.

The per kg spot rubber rates were: RSS-4: Rs 83.00 (Rs 86.00); RSS-5: Rs 80.00 (Rs 84.00); Ungraded: Rs 78.00 (Rs 82.00); ISNR 20: Rs 79.50 (Rs 84.00) and Latex 60 per cent: Rs 68.40 (Rs 69.45).