KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 13 (Bernama) — Malaysian rubber prices closed mostly higher Monday on positive sentiment following the 2015 Budget, a dealer said.
The government, via the Malaysian Rubber Board, will provide soft loans totalling RM6.4 million to 64 smallholder cooperatives to enable them to buy rubber from 442,000 smallholders.
The dealer said the loans, which would be disbursed early next month, would enable the cooperatives to have a working capital to make the purchases, thus would help boost the market and reduce the commodity’s inventory level.
“We are hoping to see the inventory to further decline and improve rubber exports,” he added.
The Statistics Department reported Monday that the Malaysian natural rubber exports in August 2014 fell by 9,644 tonnes or 16 per cent to 50,467 tonnes compared with the previous month.
The noon benchmark Malaysian Rubber Board’s official physical price for tyre-grade SMR 20 was 2.5 sen higher at 463.5 sen a kg while latex-in-bulk eased 0.5 sen to 368.5 sen a kg.
The 5 pm unofficial closing price for tyre-grade SMR 20 soared 11.5 sen to 469 sen a kg and latex-in-bulk gained 0.5 sen to 369 sen a kg.
–BERNAMA
