The Hindu Business Line : Mixed trend in rubber

Kottayam, Jan 16 Spot rubber showed a mixed trend on Wednesday. Most of the players sidelined the market since the global reports were negative. Sheet rubber closed unchanged at Rs 94.75 a kg at Kottayam as certain major manufacturers were active on the grade at the quoted level. But the grade shed 50 paise to end at Rs 94.25 a kg at Kochi reacting to the late slip in domestic futures. Latex and ungraded rubber also lost on buyer resistance. The undercurrent was bearish.

Futures decline

The February futures for RSS 3 declined to ¥278.4 (Rs 103.83) from ¥286.2 a kg at TOCOM. The grade’s spot improved by 10 paise to Rs 103.83 against Rs 103.73 a kg at Bangkok. On NMCE, the February futures ruled weak at Rs 95.70 (Rs 96.48), March at Rs 97.95 (Rs 98.52), April at Rs 99.90 (Rs 100.56) and May at Rs 102 (Rs 102.66) a kg for RSS 4. The open interest was 8,261 (8,876) tonnes and volume 917 (1,402) tonnes. The open positions were 4,503 (4,643) lots in February, 2,859 (2,825) lots in March, 873 (867) lots in April and 26 lots in May. The April futures concluded at Rs 99.03 (Rs 97.09) a kg on MCX.

Spot prices were (Rs/kg): RSS-4: 94.75 (94.75); RSS-5: 92 (92); ungraded: 90 (90.50); ISNR 20: 91.50 (91.50) and latex 60 per cent: 60 (61).