The Hindu Business Line : Spot rubber prices rule steady

Kottayam April 19 Physical rubber prices were unchanged on Thursday. The market remained neutral, as it might have overreacted during Wednesday's fall shedding excess wait on panic selling.

RSS 4 closed at Rs 870 a kg at Kottayam but the grade was down by 50 paise at Rs 86.50 a kg at Kochi. The market lacked proper support from the major manufacturers even at this juncture, a dealer said. The volumes were low though there were marginal covering purchases at lower levels.

Futures down

The domestic futures resumed the downtrend catalysed by the steep fall in TOCOM contracts followed by yen's climb against dollar and a fall in crude oil futures. According to observers, the traders were still under the shadow of import rumours and other related reports on rubber.

The May contract for RSS 4 declined to Rs 86.70 (88.78), June to Rs 89.12 (91.43), July to Rs 91.70 (93.47) and August to Rs 91.11 (92.39) per kg on NMCE. The May contract fell to Rs 87.61 from Rs 89.42 a kg on MCX.

The open interest on NMCE was quoted at 9,990 (9,774) lots with 5417 lots in May, 3338 lots in June, 1078 lots in July and 157 lots in August. The volumes were 2,172 (2,294) lots.

The May futures for RSS 3 fell by the daily limit of 10 Yen to 277.5 Yen (Rs 99.24) a kg from 287.5 Yen at TOCOM. The grade's spot improved by 66 paise to Rs 100.11 a kg at Bangkok.

Spot rubber prices were: RSS-4: 87 (87); RSS-5: 86 (86); Ungraded: 85 (85); ISNR 20: 86.25 (86.25) and Latex 60 per cent: 64.20 (64.20).