Physical rubber prices continued to remain in a corrective phase on Thursday. The market made further losses mainly in the absence of buyers though there was no selling pressure from dealers or growers. Sharp declines in the international markets and a bearish outlook in the domestic futures were the guiding factors that kept the traders mostly on sidelines during the day. The transactions were low.

Though there has been an upswing consistently for the last few months in rubber prices, of late there is a set back to the rubber sector and some small units have shut down , according to Mr George Valy, President, Indian rubber Dealers Federation. The Chinese absence in the international market contributed considerably to the current decline. The tyre production is now at a slow pace and it has badly affected the automobile sector also. The market is now at a downward journey before it settles at a stage which should be acceptable to growers as well, Mr Valy observed

Sheet rubber weakened to Rs. 216.50 (217.50) a kg, according to traders. The grade moved down to Rs 217.00 (218.00) a kg both at Kottayam and Kochi, as reported by the Rubber Board.

In futures, the July series recovered marginally to Rs 213.90 (212.23), August to Rs 216.08 (215.32), September to Rs 215.94 (214.54) and December to Rs 217.90 (216.20) while the October series dropped to Rs 214.51 (214.74) and November to Rs 215.00 (218.20) a kg for RSS 4 on the National Multi Commodity Exchange.

RSS 3 (spot) declined to Rs 215.26 (221.73) a kg at Bangkok. The June futures nosedived to ¥ 377.9 (Rs 210.78) from ¥ 393.0 a kg during the day session and then slipped to ¥ 375.7 (Rs 209.54) in the night session on Tokyo Commodity Exchange.

Spot rubber rates (Rs/kg) were: RSS-4: 216.50 (217.50); RSS-5: 214.00 (215.00); Ungraded: 211.00 (213.00); ISNR 20: 213.00 (215.00) and Latex 60 per cent: 135.00 (137.00)

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