KUALA LUMPUR: The Kuala Lumpur rubber market is expected to be trading range-bound with negative bias, said the Malaysian Rubber Glove Manufacturers Association.
Its immediate past president Denis Low said markets will be expecting another slow week for the rubber market in view of the Easter holidays in Europe, which can affect supply and demand.
Meanwhile, tapping can be affected by the impending Songkran festivals which can halt total activities for several days.
“There will be sporadic demand but it will be muted. Good Friday and Easter on Monday mean a shorter week as well. With the lack of supply, the rubber market has balanced itself with the lack of demand,” he told Bernama.
In the meantime, Low said the slow growth situation in the global economy has negative implications for the sector’s recovery, industries’ productivity and investment.
“Buyers and industries across the world are now apprehensive about a concerted global economic recovery and may
tend to take things cautiously,” he said.
Another dealer said rubber prices will continue to track the performance of regional rubber futures markets, the strength of the ringgit against the US dollar and benchmark crude oil prices.
“Market players will be keeping a close watch on US pivotal jobs data after a string of soft US economic data this week reinforced bets that the Federal Reserve may be ready to pause its tightening policy,” it said.
For the week just ended, the local rubber market declined slightly, influenced by weaker advice in regional rubber futures markets and a stronger ringgit as sentiment was dented by fears of a global economic slowdown following weak manufacturing indicators across the globe.
Nevertheless, the dealer said, further losses were capped by gains in benchmark crude oil prices following the production cut announcement by OPEC+, encouraging Chinese economic data and US auto sales data.
On a Thursday-to-Friday basis, the Malaysian Rubber Board’s (MRB) reference physical price for Standard Malaysian Rubber 20 (SMR 20) decreased by 11 sen, or 1.85 per cent, to 582 sen from 593 sen a kilogramme (kg) registered the previous Friday.
Latex-in-bulk fell 4.0 sen to 503.5 sen a kg from 507.5 sen two weeks earlier.
At 5 pm on Thursday, the MRB closing price for SMR 20 stood at 578.5 sen a kg, while latex-in-bulk was at 501.5 sen a kg.
The local rubber market was closed on Friday in conjunction with Good Friday and resumes operations today. – BERNAMA
