London – The rate of decline in natural rubber prices of the past two weeks seems to be slowing down with the price of some futures even firming up slightly.
The most encouraging trends were noticed on the Shanghai Futures Exchanges where September contract prices finished trading, on 19 June 2.8 percent highe,r than the equivalent figure of the previous week.
And while prices for October futures contracts fell 2.1 percent, the rate decline around Shanghai rubber futures, to Jan 2016, was significantly less than in the prior trading week.
Signs of improved confidence among Chinese buyers had yet to feed through to Bangkok where prices for RSS3 fell 2.4 percent between 12-19 June, ending the last trading week at $183.40/100kg.
Likewise, on the Kuala Lumpur Exchange, prices for SMR 20 grade natural rubber fell by 1.1 percent to finish the week at $157.05/100kg.
On Japan’s Tocom exchange, rubber futures prices also declined between 10-17 June. The ‘back month’ price fell 2.1 percent to Yen229.6/kg, while the ‘near month’ price dipped 2.2 percent to Yen221.9/kg.
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