The Hindu Business Line : Rubber tops a record Rs 75/kg

SPOT rubber made yet another record closing on Thursday. The current bullish fever in the domestic scene was initiated by the sharp gains in overseas indices. Covering groups and purchase agents were on their toes to procure the raw material.

Certain tyre companies bought sheet rubber for up to Rs 73.50 a kg, while the non-tyre sector remained most active in ungraded rubber and ISNR 20 in a rather overheated market. Sheet rubber flared up to Rs 75 a kg at Kottayam and Kochi from Rs 73.25 and Rs 73.50 a kg, respectively on Wednesday.

The rubber futures firmed up proportionally adding handsome gains to all contracts on NMCE. The February contract was traded at Rs 76.81 (75.82), March Rs 78.80 (77.69), April Rs 79.80 (78.92) and May contract at Rs 80.75 (79.89) per kg for RSS 4. The transactions till noon improved to 1,795 lots, trading 728 lots in February, 835 in March, 120 in April and 112 lots in May.

At TOCOM, the February futures for RSS 3 shot up by Rs 2.31 to close at 223.7 yen (Rs 86.13) against 217.7 yen a kg. The grade improved to Rs 83.55 from Rs 83.25 a kg at Bangkok spot.

Spot prices a kg were: RSS-4: 75 (73.25); RSS-5: 73 (71.50); ungraded: 71.75 (70.25); ISNR 20: 72.50 (70.75); and latex 60%: 52.50 (51.50).