Rubber steady as traders turn inactive .

Kottayam, March 25 Spot rubber was steady on Thursday. The sentiments remained neutral as there were no quantity sellers or buyers on either side to keep the market live during the session.

According to observers, sharp gains in the Japanese markets helped the prices to sustain at current levels though major manufacturers continued to stay inactive. Sheet rubber closed unchanged at Rs 153.50 a kg amidst scattered transactions. The volumes were low. April futures firmed up marginally to Rs 156.75 (156.34), May to Rs 158.92 (158.24), June to Rs 158.50 (157.71) and July to Rs 158.65 (157.84) a kgfor RSS 4 on National Multi Commodity Exchange. March futures for RSS 3 expired at ¥308.5 (303.9) while the April futures flared up to ¥311.3 (300.5), May to ¥306.4 (298.4), June to ¥303.3 (295.5), July to ¥300 (291.4) and August to ¥297.6 (288) a kg during the day session on Tokyo Commodity Exchange. April futures improved further to ¥311.7, May to ¥308.7, June to ¥304.5, July to ¥301.5 and August to ¥299.4 on late trades. RSS 3 closed firm at Rs 151.92 (150.07) a kg on Singapore Commodity Exchange. The grade improved to Rs 152.55 (151.90) a kg at Bangkok.

Spot rubber prices (Rs/kg) were: RSS-4: 153.50 (153.50); RSS-5: 152.50 (152.50); Ungraded: 151 (151); ISNR 20: 151 (151) and Latex 60 per cent: 100 (100).

Source : Business Line