The Malaysian rubber market is expected to be volatile next week amid uncertain global sentiment, dealers said.
They said it would be difficult to predict the trend next week as prices would most probably be influenced by the announcement by the Department of Statistics that Malaysia’s natural rubber production dropped 14.9 per cent in August this year.
External factors, namely developments in the United States and Europe, would also have negative impact on the rubber market, a dealer said.
However, another dealer said the continued strengthening of the ringgit against the US dollar would help boost the demand for the commodity next week.
On a Friday-to-Friday basis, the Malaysian Rubber Board’s sellers official physical price for tyre-grade SMR 20 fell 10 sen to 922 sen per kg, while latex-in-bulk eased five sen to 640 sen per kg.
The unofficial sellers’ closing price for tyre-grade SMR 20 fell 13 sen to 915.5 sen per kg and latex-in-bulk dropped 8.5 sen to 637.5 sen per kg. — BERNAMA
