The Hindu Business Line : Spot rubber prices subdued

Kottayam, Dec. 3 Heavy losses in international rubber markets followed mainly by the slip in crude oil kept the domestic prices subdued on Monday. The January futures for RSS 3 was down by 7.7 Yen a kg at 255 Yen against 262.7Yen a kg at TOCOM. The global trend setter fell sharply in all its contracts on heavy long liquidation while the grade’s spot closed at 96.44 (97.35) a kg at Bangkok. Sheet rubber finished extremely weak at Rs 91.50 and Rs 92 a kg against Rs 93 and Rs 93.50 a kg respectively at Kottayam and Kochi. The market made all-round declines on buyer resistance amidst selling from dealers and growers.

Futures decline

In futures, the most active December contract plunged to Rs 92.22 (93.92) a kg on MCX. On NMCE, the December contract nosedived to Rs 92.21 (94.73), January to Rs 93.70 (96.02), February to Rs 95.37 (97.75) and March to Rs 97.25 (99.72) per kg for RSS 4. The open interest stood at 5,662 (5,898) tonnes. The volumes totalled 2,214 (826) tonnes. The open positions were quoted at 1,630 (1,825) tonnes in December, 2,294 (2,364) tonnes in January, 1,375 (1,396) tonnes in February and 363 (313) tonnes in March. The prices went below the initial daily downward limit of 2 per cent on NMCE.

Spot prices per kg were: RSS-4: 91.50 (93); RSS-5: 87.50 (90.50); ungraded: 83.50 (85.50) ISNR 20: 86.50 (89) and latex 60 per cent: 61 (62).