The Hindu Business Line : Spot rubber gains on futures’ cues

Kottayam, Aug. 6 Spot rubber improved on Monday. The bullish fever in domestic futures set the trend of the day and the physical prices followed suit recording smart gains in all grades except latex which appeared to be in a comparatively slow pace.

RSS 4 settled higher at Rs 91 and Rs 92 a kg against Rs 89.50 and Rs 90 a kg, respectively, at Kottayam and Kochi.

The market was highly speculative and the sentiments were under the grip of supply concerns, an analyst said.

The rubber futures gained sharply breaking the initial upward limit of 2 per cent on the NMCE.

The August contract flared up to Rs 93.41 (Rs 89.82), September to Rs 88.16 (Rs 84.77), October to Rs 85.49 (Rs 82.53) and November to Rs 83.90 (Rs 81.75) per kg for RSS 4.

The August contract moved up to Rs 91.60 from Rs 88.18 a kg on MCX. The open interest on NMCE was 6,522 tonnes (6,611 tonnes) with 2,301 tonnes (2,485 tonnes) in August, 2,520 tonnes (2,476 tonnes) in September, 1,256 tonnes (1,218 tonnes) in October and 445 tonnes (432 tonnes) in November.

The volumes were 4,789 tonnes (1,578 tonnes). The September futures for RSS 3 was weak at 257.2 yen (Rs 88.46) a kg against 260.7 ten a kg at TOCOM.

The grade (spot) slipped by 25 paise to Rs 89.47 a kg at Bangkok.

Physical prices (in Rs/kg) were: RSS-4 – 91 (89.50); RSS-5 – 88 (86.50); ungraded – 87 (85.50); ISNR 20 – 88 (87); and Latex 60% – 60 (60).