The Hindu Business Line : Global cues push down spot rubber

Kottayam May 9 Physical rubber prices fell further on Wednesday. The overall market behaviour in international and domestic futures makes us nervous, dealers said. Major manufactures are consciously trying to push down the prices day by day, a section of the traders alleged.

Sheet rubber moved down to Rs 84 and Rs 84.50 from Rs 84.75 and Rs 85.25 a kg respectively at Kottayam and Kochi. The market still experiences the pressure from excess stocks and the fundamentals are against an immediate bull run, an analyst said.

Futures improve

On NMCE, the rubber futures turned green quoting the May contract at Rs 84.55 (83.98), June at Rs 86.95 (85.93), July at Rs 88.70 (87.85) and August at Rs 89.49 (89.16) per kg for RSS 4. The market was down early in the session but recovered late towards close and finished in the positive zone.

The open interest was 10,009 (10,779) tonnes with 4,263 (4,981) tonnes in May, 3,565 (3,666) tonnes in June, 1,707 (1,664) tonnes in July and 474 (468) tonnes in August. The volumes were 1,618 (1,424) lots.

RSS 4 slipped to Rs 86.35 from Rs 86.70 a kg at its June contract on MCX.

The June futures for RSS 3 weakened to 276.9 Yen (Rs 94.48) from 280.5 Yen a kg at TOCOM. The grade (spot) improved to Rs 95.50 from Rs 94.84 a kg at Bangkok.

Spot rubber prices were (Rs/kg): RSS-4: 84 (84.75); RSS-5: 83 (83.50); Ungraded: 82 (82); ISNR 20: 83.25 (83.25) and Latex 60 per cent: 62.10 (63.15).