KUALA LUMPUR — Trading on the Malaysian rubber market is expected to be firm with an upside bias next week, a dealer said.
He said the price movements were expected to be influenced by the performances on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange, the ringgit and crude oil futures.
The dealer said oil prices influenced rubber prices as their rise and fall would determine the pricing of natural rubber’s competitor, synthetic rubber.
“The market is expected to remain strong as the players are concerned about the tight supplies as well as strong buying interest,” he said.
For the week just-ended, rubber prices were mixed in line with the trend on regional futures market.
It was traded lower for the first two days, mixed on Wednesday, rebounded on Thursday before remaining mixed towards the weekend.
On a Friday-to-Friday basis, the Malaysian Rubber Board’s official physical price for tyre-grade SMR 20 gained 34 sen to 657.5 sen a kg from 623.5 sen a kg, and latex-in-bulk increased 19 sen to 499 sen a kg from 518.0 sen a kg from 499.0 sen a kg.
The 5 pm closing price for tyre-grade SMR 20 was 24 sen higher at 661.5 sen a kg and latex-in-bulk gained 19.5 sen to 517.5 sen a kg.
