The Hindu Business Line : Rubber prices under pressure

Spot rubber prices remained under pressure on Monday. The market seemed to be reacting closely to the import news and rumours. The domestic prices are currently ruling almost Rs 10 a kg above the global figures.

According to informed sources, tyre manufacturers will soon import a large consignment of the raw materiel, which might dry up the domestic buying interest further. Sheet rubber RSS 4 moved down to Rs 89.25 and Rs 89 a kg respectively at Kottayam and Kochi from Rs 90 a kg on Saturday.

Futures mixed

The rubber futures were mixed on NMCE. The November contract finished at Rs 89.70 (Rs 89.23), December contract at Rs 83.50 (Rs 82.58), January contract at Rs 82.00 (Rs 82.35) and February contract at Rs 83.40 (Rs 83.61 per kg for RSS 4. The volumes totalled 1,059 tonnes.

The open interest in November was 1442 (1470) lots, December 1939 (1867) lots, January 1060 (1000) lots and February 430 (384) lots.

RSS 3 was weak at Rs 78.57 against Rs 78.93 a kg at Bangkok spot. The December futures for RSS 3 improved to 206 Yen (Rs 78.34) a kg from 204.6 Yen a kg at TOCOM.

Spot prices (Rs a kg) were: RSS-4: 89.25 (90); RSS-5: 87 (88); ungraded: 83 (84); ISNR 20: 86.50 (87.50) and Latex 60 per cent: 60.50 (61.05).