KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 24): The Malaysian rubber market continued its downtrend from last Friday’s closing, following the negative sentiment brought about by the fall of other regional markets, a dealer said.
He said that the market sentiment was jittery due to worries over the cooling Chinese economy, after last week’s Purchasing Managers’ Index fell to 48.3 in February 2014, from 50.5 in January.
The fall of Chinese share prices by two per cent, had also triggered rubber selling, he said.
He added that there were also rising concerns over the high rubber stockpile in the Chinese ports of Qingdao, at nearly 340,000 tonnes, and Shanghai at 204,411 tonnes, which continues to contribute to the fall of the prices.
At noon, the Malaysian Rubber Board’s official physical price for tyre-grade SMR20, fell nine sen to 613 sen a kg, while latex-in-bulk slipped one sen to 479.5 sen per kg.
The unofficial closing price for tyre-grade SMR20 was 15 sen lower, at 609 sen a kg, while latex-in-bulk shed three sen to 478.5 sen a kg.
