KUALA LUMPUR — The Malaysian rubber market is likely to trend higher next week driven by firmer crude oil price, dealers said. A dealer said crude oil price was expected to strengthen following the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (OPEC) decision to reduce output. However, he said, the local rubber market would also be influenced by the movements of ringgit against the US dollar as well as the performances of the Tokyo Commodity Exchange and Shanghai Futures Exchange.
For the week-just-ended, the local market was traded mostly lower weighed by the weaker regional rubber markets as well as the stronger ringgit against the US dollar. On Friday-to-Friday basis, the Malaysian Rubber Board’s noon price for tyre-grade SMR 20 fell to 559 sen a kg from 592.5 sen a kg last Friday, while latex-in-bulk declined to 465.5 sen a kg from 467.0 sen a kg previously. The 5 pm unofficial closing price for SMR 20 declined to 556 sen a kg from 593.0 sen a kg last week, while latex-in-bulk slipped 1.5 sen to 465 sen a kg from 466.5 sen a kg previously. The market will be closed on Monday for Awal Muharram.
