Rubber witnesses steady trend

Spot rubber closed almost firm on May 22. RSS 4 was quoted flat at Rs 90.50 and Rs 91 a kg, respectively at Kottayam and Kochi in a session ended with extremely dull volumes. The global trend-setter opened higher in the wake of gains in gold and oil futures but profit booking and bear selling brought the prices under pressure later. On National Multi Commodity Exchange, the June contract weakened to Rs 91.75 (91.94), July Rs 92.50 (93.89), August Rs 92.25 (93.47) and September to Rs 90 (91.29) per kg for RSS 4. The June contract declined to Rs 90.90 a kg from Rs 91.87 on MCX. The open interest was 7,356 (7,309) lots with 4,078 (4,124) lots in June, 2,568 (2,464) in July, 621 (632) in August and 89 (89) lots in September on NMCE. The volumes totalled 2,010 (1,938) tonnes. RSS 3 (spot) declined marginally by 5 paise to Rs 98.01 (98.06) a kg at Bangkok. The June futures for the grade closed at 293.5 yen (Rs 98.31) against 291.8 yen a kg at TOCOM. Spot rubber prices were (Rs/kg): RSS-4: 90.50 (90.50); RSS-5: 89.50 (89.50); Ungraded: 88.25 (88.50); ISNR 20: 89.25 (89) and Latex 60 per cent: 64.20 (64.20).