Rubber Witnesses Steady Trend

Kottayam: Spot rubber closed unchanged on April 23. RSS 4 finished flat at Rs 86.75 and Rs 86.50 a kg respectively at Kottayam and Kochi and it was also reported that there were marginal purchasing at lower levels from major manufacturers. The May contract declined to Rs 87.50 (88.38), June to Rs 90.60 (91.78), July to Rs.92.90 (94.08) and August contract to Rs 92.99 (93.92) per kg for RSS 4. The May contract weakened to Rs 88.60 a kg from Rs 89.05 on MCX. The volumes on NMCE totalled 1,712 (1,078) tonnes, while the open interest was quoted at 10,266 (10,136) tonnes with 5,147 lots in May, 3,641 lots in June, 1,245 lots in July and 233 lots in August. The May futures for RSS 3 declined to 271.2 Yen (Rs 95.51) a kg from 274.7 Yen at TOCOM. Its spot settled weak at Rs 99.41 from Rs 100.77 a kg at Bangkok. Spot rates were (Rs/kg): RSS-4: 86.75 (86.75); RSS-5: 85.50 (85.50); ungraded: 84.75 (84.75); ISNR 20: 85.25 (85.25) and Latex 60 per cent: 63.65 (63.65).