Rubber futures under pressure on May 5

The ICEX rubber futures continued to remain under pressure on Tuesday. Belying the initial optimism over the resumption of operations by some tyre companies, the market fell and traded below ₹11,000 per 100 kg.

There were reports that CEAT had resumed partial operations at its Nagpur, Nashik and Halol units and Apollo Tyres in Tamil Nadu.

RSS 4 surrendered at it May futures to ₹109.83 (111.65) and June to ₹108.36 (109.25) per kg on the Indian Commodity Exchange (ICEX).May contracts were down by 0.1.63 % with a volume of 102 lots and total trade value of 112.26 Lakhs.“The front month May rubber is likely to remain under pressure and prices may fall more in the coming sessions,” said Akshay Agarwal, MD, Acumen Capital.“However the possibility of another trade war between the US and China and negligible to zero auto sales in India in April raised concerns over demand for tyres”, said Kunal Shah, Head of Commodities Research, Nirmal Bang.

Meanwhile, it has been informed that the expiry date of May rubber contracts will remain intact. There will not be any change in the predefined date, sources confirmed.

RSS 3 (spot) declined to ₹102.24 (104.83) per kg at Bangkok. SMR20 improved to ₹81.46 (81.24) and Latex 60% to ₹73.58 (72.38) per kg at Kualalumpur.