By Rahul Dhuri
MUMBAI – Futures contracts of rubber on Indian Commodity Exchange ended lower today, due to weak demand from tyre manufacturers, traders said.
On ICEX, the December contract ended at 12,112 rupees per 100 kg, down 66 rupees from Tuesday.
However, gains in the benchmark contracts on Tokyo Commodity Exchange, cushioned a sharp fall in the domestic market, said Thaha Mohamed, the owner of Sara Traders in Kochi.
Natural rubber futures on TOCOM were marginally higher today as the yen weakened against the dollar and tracking benchmark contracts of rubber on the Shanghai Futures Exchange, analysts said.
A weak Japanese currency makes the yen-denominated rubber cheaper for overseas buyers.
The most-active May contract on the Japanese exchange ended up 0.6 yen at 163.5 yen (102.13 rupees) per kg.
Analysts expect rubber prices to trade with a positive bias due to a fall in inventories. As of Tuesday, stocks of rubber at Shanghai accredited warehouses were at 292,780 tn compared with 506,570 tn a month ago.
In Malaysia, the SMR-20 grade was down 80 cents at $123.55 per 100 kg, according to the Rubber Board.
Meanwhile, rubber prices in the spot markets of Kerala were steady today as both demand and supply were subdued, traders said.
In Kochi, the price of the widely-traded RSS-4 variety was flat at 119.00 rupees per kg, traders said.
The RSS-4 variety was sold at 119.00 rupees per kg in Kochi and Kottayam, unchanged from the previous day, data from the Rubber Board of India showed.
Today’s closing prices of rubber, in rupees per kg, at Kottayam and Kochi, as detailed by the Rubber Board, and the change in prices, in rupees, compared with the previous close are given in the following table:
| KOTTAYAM | KOCHI | |||
| GRADE | PRICE | CHANGE | PRICE | CHANGE |
| RSS-4 | 119.00 | Unch | 119.00 | Unch |
| RSS-5 | 116.00 | (-) 0.50 | 116.00 | (-) 0.50 |
| ISNR-20 | 109.00 | Unch | NA | NA |
| Latex | 82.40 | Unch | NA | NA |
OUTLOOK
The bearish trend in the rubber market is likely to continue in the coming days due to a surge in imports of the commodity coupled with subdued demand from domestic buyers, traders said.
Prices are likely to fall by 2-3 rupees from its current level, they said. End
US$1 = 70.46 rupees
Edited by Maheswaran Parameswaran
