Rubber witnesses up trend

Kottayam: Physical rubber rates increased on July 20. RSS 4 flared up to Rs 82 from Rs 80.50 a kg both at Kottayam and Kochi as covering groups turned active driven by a better closing in TOCOM. On NMCE, the August contract improved to Rs 82 (80.39), September to Rs 80.50 (79.26), October to Rs 80.40 (79.09) and November to Rs 79.76 (78.71) per kg for RSS 4. The August contract firmed up to Rs 81.25 (80.13) a kg on MCX. The open interest on NMCE was 6,394 (6,532) tonnes with 3,056 (3,260) tonnes in August, 1,947 (1,951) tonnes in September, 1,184 (1,150) tonnes in October and 207 (171) tonnes in November. The volumes were 3,718 (4,233) tonnes. RSS 3 improved at its August futures to 257.5 Yen (Rs 84.91 ) from 251.1 Yen a kg at TOCOM. The grade closed at Rs 83.88 against Rs 83.23 a kg at Bangkok. Spot prices were (Rs/kg): RSS-4: 82 (80.50); RSS-5: 80 (79); ungraded: 78 (77); ISNR 20: 79.50 (78.50) and latex 60 per cent: 58.40 (57.90).