TOKYO (Sept 11): Benchmark Tokyo rubber futures rose nearly 3% on Friday, posting its first weekly gain in four, led by a short-covering rally on higher Shanghai futures, but gains were capped over worries about Chinese stocks next week.
The Tokyo Commodity Exchange (TOCOM) rubber contract for February delivery <0#2JRU:> closed 4.9 yen, or 2.8%, higher at 177.8 yen ($1.48) per kg. It earlier hit a high of 179.8 yen, the highest in about two weeks.
For the week, the TOCOM futures, which set the tone for tyre rubber prices in Southeast Asia, climbed 8.3%, marking the biggest weekly gain since late May.
“What happened this week was an autonomous recovery. The market had been oversold last week,” said Toshitaka Tazawa, analyst at Fujitomi Co, adding firmer Shanghai rubber prices lent support.
The most-active rubber contract on the Shanghai futures exchange for January delivery rose 250 yuan to finish at 11,860 yuan ($1,860.83) per tonne.
Investors paid little attention to weak automobile sales in China as they stepped up position adjustment, dealers said.
Sales in the world’s largest auto market fell 3% in August from a year earlier to 1.7 million vehicles, dented by China’s slowest economic growth in a quarter of a century, an industry association said on Thursday.
“But the market sentiment will likely remain weak next week with persistent worries about oversupply and volatile stock markets in China,” Tazawa said.
China stocks ended a directionless session with mixed performance, as investors awaited more signals for trying to judge the health of the country’s economy.
The front-month rubber contract on Singapore’s SICOM exchange for October delivery last traded at 126.4 US cents per kg, up 0.5 cent.
($1 = 120.4700 yen)
($1 = 6.3735 Chinese yuan)
