Spot rubber gains on covering purchase

Spot rubber gains on covering purchase

Kottayam, Sept 24

Physical rubber rates improved on Friday. Widespread rains during the past 24 hours kept the buyers active during the session. Partially weak closing on the National Multi Commodity Exchange (NMCE) failed to make any visible impact in the day's sentiments. The trend was mixed and volume low. Sheet rubber increased to Rs 166 from Rs 165 a kg on covering purchases. The grade closed firm at Rs 166 (164.75) a kg on the Board's website.

Futures firm

In futures, the October series closed at Rs 168.5 (169.02), November at Rs 169.8 (169.45), December at Rs 172.47 (172.24) and January at Rs 175 (175.02) a kg for RSS 4 on the NMCE. The volumes totalled 4,504 lots and open interest 3,575 lots. The turnover was Rs 76.93 crore. The September futures for RSS 3 expired at ¥295.8 (Rs 158.89) on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange. The October futures improved to ¥300 (Rs 161.16) from ¥298.7 during the day session and then to ¥301.2 (Rs 161.79) a kg during the night session. RSS 3 (spot) improved to Rs 162.9 (162.36) a kg at Bangkok.

Spot rates were (Rs/kg): RSS-4: 166 (165); RSS-5: 162.5 (161.5); ungraded: 160 (160); ISNR 20: 159.5 (158) and latex 60 per cent: 114.5 (114).