Rubber Witnesses Down Trend

Kottayam: Physical rubber prices declined further on May 9. The overall market behaviour in international and domestic futures makes us nervous. Sheet rubber declined to Rs 84 and Rs 84.50 from Rs 84.75 and Rs 85.25 a kg respectively at Kottayam and Kochi. On NMCE, the rubber futures turned green quoting the May contract at Rs 84.55 (83.98), June at Rs 86.95 (85.93), July at Rs 88.70 (87.85) and August at Rs 89.49 (89.16) per kg for RSS 4. The open interest was 10,009 (10,779) tonnes with 4,263 (4,981) tonnes in May, 3,565 (3,666) tonnes in June, 1,707 (1,664) tonnes in July and 474 (468) tonnes in August. RSS 4 dropped to Rs 86.35 from Rs 86.70 a kg at its June contract on MCX. The June futures for RSS 3 weakened to 276.9 Yen (Rs 94.48) from 280.5 Yen a kg at TOCOM. The grade (spot) improved to Rs 95.50 from Rs 94.84 a kg at Bangkok. Spot rubber prices were (Rs/kg): RSS-4: 84 (84.75); RSS-5: 83 (83.50); Ungraded: 82 (82); ISNR 20: 83.25 (83.25) and Latex 60 per cent: 62.10 (63.15).