KUALA LUMPUR — The Malaysian rubber market was in a slightly weaker performance this week, taking cue from the negative performance in the regional futures market and Shanghai futures market.
The Tokyo Commodity Exchange was traded almost lower for the rest of the week, due to the strengthening of the yen against the US Dollar, while Shanghai futures weakened after Beijing raised short-term interest rates.
However, a dealer said that the losses were capped by a slight recovery in the oil price after the US imposed sanctions on some Iranian individuals and entities earlier this week.
He said the move was taken days after the White House rebuked Tehran for a ballistic missile test.
Moving into next week, another dealer said that there were mixed signals for the rubber market movement, owing to weakness in regional and Shanghai futures markets as well as the recovery in the oil price.
He said traders were expected to take a wait-and-see stance for any development in the regional market before making any decision.
The market was closed on Thursday for the Thaipusam holiday.
On a Friday-to-Friday basis, the Malaysian Rubber Board’s official physical price for tyre-grade SMR 20 at noon fell seven sen to 961 sen a kg, while latex-in-bulk declined 17.5 sen to 795 sen a kg.
The unofficial closing price for tyre-grade SMR 20 and latex-in-bulk ended the week at 969 sen a kg and 794 sen a kg, respectively.
