The Hindu Business Line : Spot rubber unchanged

Kottayam March 16 Spot rubber closed unchanged on Friday. According to market circles, scattered transactions failed make any impact in the physical front. Though the international markets landed in the negative zone, the absence of selling pressure and a firm trend in domestic futures maintained the rates at prevailing levels. RSS 4 was static at Rs 87.50 a kg at Kottayam and it slipped by 50 paise to the same rate at Kochi.

Futures gain

But the rubber futures continued its up trend even against weak global advices. The April contract for RSS 4 improved to Rs 90.65 (90.26), May to Rs 94.91(94.44), June to Rs 98 (97.63), while the July contract concluded its debut trading at Rs 100 a kg on NMCE.

The open interest was 11,829 (11,512) lots with 4837 lots in April, 5252 lots in May, 1637 lots in June and 103 lots in July. The volumes totalled 3,569 (2,446) lots.

The April contract for RSS 4 settled at Rs 91.30 a kg against Rs 90.65 on MCX.

The April futures for RSS 3 weakened to255.3 Yen (Rs 96.46) from 256.2 Yen a kg at TOCOM. The grade declined Rs 96.75 from Rs 97.72 a kg at Bangkok.

Spot rubber prices were (Rs/kg): RSS-4: 87.50 (87.50); RSS-5: 86.50 (86.50); ungraded: 85.50 (85.50); ISNR 20: 86 (86) and latex 60 per cent: 62.10 (62.10).