Spot rubber closed unchanged on Wednesday. The commodity lost its direction as most traders were unwilling to enhance their commitments on rumours that there will not be any payment against fresh purchases and lifting of stocks till the end of the current financial year.
“This is quite usual during the last weeks of March every year” an observer said, adding, “ So we may have to wait till April to witness a sharp uptrend in the market.” RSS-4 was quoted steady at ₹172.50 and ₹172 a kg, respectively, by traders and the Rubber Board. The trend continued to remain mixed as ISNR20 improved a tad on sustained demand but the overall volumes were dull. In futures, the most active March contracts were up 0.11 per cent from Tuesday’s settlement price to close at ₹170 per kg with a volume of seven lots on the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX). . RSS-3 (spot) improved to ₹169.31 (168.37) per kg at Bangkok. SMR20 firmed up to ₹132.52 (131.83), while Latex to ₹121.92 (121.90) per kg at Kuala Lumpur. The natural rubber contract for the May 2022 delivery was down 0.67 per cent from previous day’s settlement price to close at 13.36 Yuan (₹160.07) per kg with a volume of 144,333 lots in daytime trading on Shanghai Futures Exchange (ShFE). Spot rubber rates (₹/kg) were: RSS-4: 172.50 (172.50), RSS-5: 170 (170), ISNR20: 164 (163.50) and Latex (60% drc): 123 (123)