KUALA LUMPUR

The Malaysian rubber market is likely to maintain a mixed trading this week, tracking the ringgit movement against the US dollar and global crude oil prices, a dealer said.

He said the rubber prices would also move in tandem with the prices of other commodities, as well as regional futures markets, namely the Tokyo Commodity Exchange and Shanghai Futures Exchange.

The global oil price movements would also affect the rubber market next week as the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and other suppliers looked set to continue withholding output for the rest of the year and potentially into 2019.

Another dealer said despite reports that fears of a global trade war easing, the US technology sector losses on Wall Street weighed on market sentiment.

For the week just-ended, rubber prices were mostly mixed due to lack of catalysts.

On a Friday-to-Thursday basis, the Malaysian Rubber Board's noon price for tyre-grade SMR 20 added two sen to 526.5 sen a kg, while latex-in-bulk was 15.5 sen lower at 432.5 sen a kg.

The 5pm unofficial closing price for SMR 20 was three sen higher at 521.0 sen a kg, while latex-in-bulk fell 12.5 sen to 429.5 sen a kg.

The Kuala Lumpur Rubber Market was closed last Friday for the Good Friday holiday in line with the international market.