The Hindu Business Line : Spot rubber stays steady

Kottayam, July 6 The physical rubber prices were almost steady on Friday. The only exception was sheet rubber which fell to Rs 74 a kg from Rs 74.50 and Rs 75 a kg respectively at Kottayam and Kochi. The grade lacked follow up support though opened higher but lost steam towards close on profit booking coupled with fresh selling at higher levels, sources said.

Futures weak

The rubber futures took a beating, surrendering a major portion of the gains acquired during the previous trading session. The trend was fuelled by a weak closing in TOCOM. The rates went up last day purely on speculation even in the absence of technical and fundamental support, an analyst said. On MCX, the near month August contract for RSS 4 fell to Rs 76.57 (78.50) a kg. The July contract for the same grade declined to Rs 74.16 (76.99), August to Rs 76.10 (77.87), September to Rs 76.40 (78.04) and October contract to Rs 76.40 (78.13) per kg on NMCE. The volumes were 3,745 (3,151) lots. The market recovered the initial losses partially during the latter half of session. The open interest stood at 6,917 (6,934) lots with 2,195 (2,293) lots in July, 2,694 (2,623) lots in August, 1,205 (1,182) lots in September and 823 (836) lots in October. In the global scenario, RSS 3 weakened at its August futures to 253.2 yen (Rs 83.13) from 256.5 yen a kg at TOCOM. RSS 3 (spot) was almost steady Rs 84.18 (Rs 84.17) a kg at Bangkok. Spot prices were (Rs/kg): RSS-4: Rs 74 (Rs 74.50); RSS-5: Rs 71.50 (Rs 71.50); Ungraded: Rs 69 (69); ISNR 20: Rs 71 (Rs 71) and latex 60 per cent: Rs 56.85 (Rs 56.85).