KUALA LUMPUR — The Malaysian rubber market is likely to be stable next week on expectations of steady demand for the commodity in the coming months, said a dealer.
He said the positive sentiment was mainly driven by gains in the regional rubber futures markets and firmer crude oil prices.
“The rubber prices would also move in tandem with those of other commodities, as well as regional futures markets like the Tokyo Commodity Exchange and Shanghai Futures Exchange,” the dealer said.
He added that the movement of the futures markets will take into account among others, worries of rising rubber inventories, the uncertain outlook following trade tensions between China and the US and currencies movement.
For the week just-ended, the market traded mostly mixed in tracking the mixed signals from regional rubber futures markets, as well as crude oil price movements.
On a Friday-to-Friday basis, the Malaysian Rubber Board’s noon price for tyre-grade SMR 20 rose 12 sen to 546 sen a kg from 534 sen a kg last week, and latex-in-bulk eased four sen to 446.5 sen a kg from 450.5 sen a kg.
The 5 pm unofficial closing price for SMR 20 rose 8.0 sen to 539.5 a kg from 531.5 sen a kg, and latex-in-bulk was 5.5 sen lower at 442 sen a kg from 447.5 sen a kg.
