The Hindu Business Line : Spot rubber rules steady

Kottayam May 30 Domestic spot rubber ruled steady on Wednesday. The market opened weak but improved subsequently as TOCOM recovered from its initial losses on fresh buying and short covering at lower levels. RSS 4 closed flat at Rs 880 a kg at Kottayam, while it improved by 25 paise to reach the same level at Kochi. Traders seemed hopeful that the prices would improve in the succeeding sessions.

Futures better

Rubber turned visibly better in futures. On NMCE, the June contract flared up to Rs 89.45 (88.08), July to Rs 90.26 (89.02), August to Rs 89.45 (88.27) and September to Rs 86.69 (85.48) per kg for RSS 4. The volumes declined to 1,413 (2,246) lots. The grade improved at its June futures to Rs 89.25 from Rs 87.23 a kg on MCX.

The open interest was 7,433 (7,249) lots with 3,458 (3,489) lots in June, 3,052 (2,835) lots in July, 763 (766) lots in August and 160 (159) lots in September on NMCE.

RSS 3 closed at 288.6 Yen (Rs 96.51) against 288.7 Yen a kg at its June futures on TOCOM. The grade declined by 38 paise to Rs 97.42 (97.80) a kg at Bangkok.

Physical prices were (Rs/kg): RSS-4: 88 (88); RSS-5: 87 (87); ungraded: 86 (86); ISNR 20: 87 (87.25) and latex 60 per cent: 62.60 (62.60).