KUALA LUMPUR — The Malaysian rubber market is likely to continue its uptrend next week on better demand for the commodity and steady oil price, dealers said. “The steady market will be due to the buyers continuing to take advantage of the commodity’s low price,” a dealer said. For the week just-ended, the local rubber market continued its uptrend, taking the cue from the Tokyo Commodity Exchange which saw a firmer rubber price coupled with steady oil price and higher-than-expected Chinese industrial production and investment data in March.
On a Friday-to-Friday basis, the Malaysian Rubber Board’s official physical price for tyre-grade SMR 20 jumped 26 sen to 611 sen a kg while latex-in-bulk gained 16.5 sen to 490.50 sen a kg. The 5 pm unofficial closing price for SMR 20 appreciated 26 sen to 603 sen a kg while latex-in-bulk expanded 16 sen to 489.0 sen a kg.