TOKYO, Nov 11 (Reuters) – Benchmark Tokyo rubber futures climbed to their two-week high on Wednesday as investors continued to unwind short positions after last week’s fall to a six-year low, but gains were limited by persistent worries about oversupply in Asia, dealers said. The Tokyo Commodity Exchange rubber contract for April delivery JRUc6 0#2JRU: finished 0.6 yen higher at 159.2 yen ($1.29) per kg, after hitting a high of 163 yen, the highest since Oct.29.
“The market is in an autonomic recovery mode after a long slide last week,” said a Tokyo-based dealer who declined to be named, adding that China’s data had little effect on it. China’s October industrial production growth cooled to 5.6 percent last month from a year ago, slightly lower than the 5.8 percent gain seen by economists in a Reuters poll. Retail sales jumped 11 percent from a year ago, just ahead of expectations of a 10.9 percent increase.
Motor vehicle sales in China rose 11.8 percent in October from a year earlier, an industry association said on Wednesday, boosted by Beijing’s move to stop the world’s biggest auto market from stalling by halving sales tax on smaller-engine cars. “The TOCOM may gain on Thursday again on the back of strong auto sales in China,” the dealer said.
“The benchmark is expected to test around 163-165 yen in a short term, but it may run out of steam after that as market fundamentals have not improved.” The most-active rubber contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange for January delivery SNRcv1 rose 120 yuan to finish at 10,675 yuan ($1,677.27) per tonne. The front-month rubber contract on Singapore’s SICOM exchange for December delivery STFc1 last traded at 119.2 U.S. cents per kg, up 2.1 cent.
($1 = 6.3645 Chinese yuan)
($1 = 123.1600 yen)
(Reporting by Yuka Obayashi; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)
