Rubber sees mixed trend

Kottayam: Physical rubber prices were almost firm on June 19. A better closing in TOCOM kept RSS 4 slightly better at Rs 80.75 and Rs 81 a kg respectively at Kottayam and Kochi against Rs 80.50 a kg on June 18. On NMCE, the July contract declined to Rs 82.49 (83.27), August to Rs 83.60 (84.27), September to Rs 82.27 (83.11) and October to Rs 80.40 (81.49) per kg for RSS 4. The July contract finished weak at Rs 82.85 (83.15) a kg on MCX. The open interest on NMCE stood at 5,707 (5,511) lots with 3,331 (3,286) lots in July, 1,580 (1,499) lots in August, 593 (579) lots in September and 203 (147) lots in October. RSS 3 (spot) fell to Rs 91.15 (92.06) a kg at Bangkok. The July futures for the grade improved to 276.2 yen (Rs 91.04) from 271.4 yen a kg at TOCOM. Spot prices were (Rs/kg): RSS-4: 80.75 (80.50); RSS-5: 79.25 (79.25); ungraded: 78.50 (78.50); ISNR 20: 79 (79) and latex 60 per cent: 60 (60).