The Hindu Business Line : Spot rubber declines

Kottayam, Oct. 5 The domestic rubber rates softened on Friday. Sheet rubber settled down by 50 paise at Rs 89.50 a kg both at Kottayam and Kochi amidst bright weather conditions. Spreading its bearish shadow over the domestic mood, the overseas indices mainly TOCOM shed the early gains towards close following bull liquidation prior to a long weekend. The trend was mixed as the remaining counters except latex finished flat with low volumes.

Futures weak

The rubber futures weakened quoting the November contract at Rs 86.35 against Rs 87.75 a kg on MCX. On NMCE, the October contract concluded at Rs 89.68 (90.44), November at Rs 86.30 (86.52), December at Rs 86.53 (86.52) and January at Rs 87.50 (87.80) per kg for RSS 4. The transactions improved to 1,361 (1,232) tonnes and open interest 3,847 (3,584) tonnes. The outstanding position in October stood at 1,175 (1,218) tonnes, November at 1,456 (1,290) tonnes, December at 851 (780) tonnes and January at 365 (296) tonnes on NMCE. The November futures for RSS 3 slipped to 256.8 Yen (Rs 87.06) from 257.4 Yen a kg at TOCOM. The grade fell by 45 paise to Rs 87.86 a kg at Bangkok.

Spot prices were (Rs/kg): RSS-4: 89.50 (90); RSS-5: 87 (87); ungraded: 85 (85); ISNR 20: 86 (86) and latex 60 per cent: 62.10 (62.60).