KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 29 — The Malaysian rubber market closed lower today, influenced by mixed advice from regional rubber futures markets and concerns over outweighed hopes for the US economic relief package.
The Malaysian Rubber Board (MRB), in its daily briefing, said the slip was also due to declining benchmark on crude oil prices.
“Oil prices dropped on Tuesday as demand concerns driven by Covid-19 outweighed hopes that the US lawmakers and the White House were nearing an agreement on a new stimulus package to revive the world’s biggest economy,” it said.
At the time of writing, the benchmark Brent crude oil price declined 0.73 per cent to US$ 42.12 per barrel.
Nevertheless, further losses were capped by positive signs of China’s economic recovery.
“Market operators are keeping an eye for the release of economic data from China and the United States throughout the week,” it said.
Citing China’s General Administration of Customs, MRB said China exported 46.3 million units of new rubber tyres in August, an increase of 8.2 per cent from the same month a year ago.
The MRB’s reference physical price for tyre-grade SMR 20 narrowed 4.5 sen to 572.0 sen a kilogramme (kg), while latex-in-bulk declined 1.5 sen to 495.5 sen a kg.
At 5 pm, the MRB’s reference physical price for SMR 20 was 3.5 sen lower to 573.0 sen a kg, while latex-in-bulk shrunk 0.5 sen at 496.5 sen a kg. — Bernama
