Kuala lumpur: The rubber market ended lower today, tracking declining regional rubber futures markets amid profit-taking and position rebalancing, a dealer said. She noted that market sentiment was affected by concerns over central banks potentially maintaining tighter monetary policies for an extended period, alongside a sell-off in global equities due to renewed US attacks on Iran.

According to BERNAMA News Agency, the negative sentiment was exacerbated by Canada's initiation of anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations into Chinese truck and bus tyre exports, as well as weaker US economic performance. Despite these challenges, higher crude oil prices and a weaker ringgit against the US dollar helped to limit further losses, as supply concerns lingered due to El-Nino.

At the time of writing, Brent crude was up 0.16 percent to US$94.80 a barrel. By 3 pm, the price of Standard Malaysian Rubber 20 (SMR 20) fell 9.5 sen per kilogramme (kg) to 954.50 sen/kg, while latex in bulk declined 1.0 sen/kg to 687.50 sen/kg.