KUALA LUMPUR: Prices on the Malaysian rubber market are expected to rise this week driven by strong performance on the regional rubber futures, dealers said.

They said the market was also adjusting to movements on the regional futures markets in Singapore and Thailand.

“On the physical side, prices for tyre-grade may fall if the prices on Tokyo Commodity Exchange (TOCOM) go soft,” a dealer said.

He added that rubber prices had been falling over the past four days as they tracked the TOCOM, where transactions were sparse.

However, the local rubber market received a boost from strong gains on the crude oil market which ended higher at the end of the week after recent losses.

On a week-to-week basis, the Malaysian Rubber Board official closing price for tyre-grade SMR 20 lost 22.5 sen to 979 sen per kg from 1001.5 sen last Friday and latex in bulk eased five sen to 646 sen per kg from 651 sen previously.

— Bernama