The Malaysian rubber market is expected to remain sluggish on discouraging external leads and lack of demand as market players began to wind down their positions in the market.
China, which has stocked up enough inventories, was abstaining from fresh acquisition of the commodity, and this coupled with discouraging data from Japan will dampen sentiment.
Japan reported on Friday that its consumer inflation accelerated to a five-year high and depressed the yen to a six-months low.
“Prices are expected to trend lower and hover within a tight range of between RM7.24 and RM7.30 per kg throughout next week,” a dealer told Bernama.
On the contrary, the continuing wet weather in major rubber producing countries was anticipated to trim supply.
For the week just-ended, the market was influenced by lack of demand, weaker ringgit and trend on Tokyo Commodity Exchange.
On a Friday-to-Friday basis, the Malaysian Rubber Board’s official physical price for tyre-grade SMR 20 gained 4.5 sen to 741 sen a kg while latex-in-bulk increased half-a-sen to 513 sen.
The unofficial closing price for tyre-grade SMR 20 gained 10 sen to 746.5 sen a kg while latex-in-bulk edged-up two sen to 515 sen a kg.– Bernama
