Our Correspondent

Kottayam , June 30

THOUGH quoted steady consecutively for the third day on Thursday, spot rubber prices were reported to be firm even amidst strong buyer resistance.

The covering groups were chasing the narrow arrivals at lower levels as rumours on a possible scarcity of sheet rubber spread over the main marketing centres.

The north Indian buying was comparatively feeble in the absence of specific market driving forces and buyers from the general rubber goods sector also kept a low profile.

Sheet rubber closed static at Rs 60.25 a kg at Kottayam but improved to Rs 61.00 from Rs 60.00 a kg at Kochi on fresh demand.

The NMCE rubber futures added moderate gains to all its contracts following extremely positive reports from the global scene.

The July contract was quoted at Rs 61.27 (Rs 60.55), August contract at Rs 61.66 (Rs 60.96), September contract at Rs 59.25 (Rs 58.61) and October contract at Rs 58.00 (Rs 57.25) per kg for RSS 4.The volumes till mid-session improved to 691 lots with 235 lots in June and 390 lots in July.

The July futures for RSS 3 hit the upper sealing at 176.1 yen before closing at 173.2 yen against 171.1 yen a kg at TOCOM. The same grade slipped to Rs 65.52 from Rs 65.64 a kg at Bangkok.

The prices per kg were: RSS-4: Rs 60.25 (Rs 60.25); RSS-5: Rs 57.75 (Rs 57.75); ungraded: Rs 56.00 (Rs 56.00);

ISNR 20: Rs 55.50 (Rs 55.50) and latex 60 per cent: Rs 38.50 (Rs 38.50).

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