Kuala Lumpur: The Malaysian rubber market rebounded to close marginally higher yesterday, lifted by the satisfactory data on Malaysian trade and the weakening of the ringgit against the US dollar, a dealer said.
He said the market was also tracking the positive performances on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange and Shanghai Futures Exchange.
“The Statistics Department has reported that Malaysia’s total trade has expanded by 9.9 per cent in the first six months of the year while trade surplus surged by 81.8 per cent,” he told Bernama.
Exports registered double-digit growth of 12.5 per cent compared to a drop of four per cent in the first half year 2013 and this has provided some good sentiment to the rubber market, he said.
“The market also reacted positively to the report by Qingdao International Rubber Exchange Market that natural rubber inventories in Qingdao, China’s main rubber trading hub, dropped to 214,300 tonnes from 239,000 tonnes as of July 31, 2014,” he added.
At the close, the Malaysian Rubber Board’s official physical price for tyre-grade SMR 20 rose 0.5 sen to 532.5 sen a kg while latex-in-bulk decreased 0.5 sen to 438 sen a kg.
The unofficial closing price for tyre-grade SMR20 increased three sen to 535 sen a kg while latex-in-bulk remained at 438 sen a kg.
Bernama
