TOKYO (Nov 18): Benchmark Tokyo rubber futures ended flat on Wednesday, with investors reluctant to take fresh positions, amid continuing concern over softening demand in top buyer China and ahead of the minutes from last month’s U.S. Federal Reserve meeting, dealers said.
The Tokyo Commodity Exchange (TOCOM) rubber contract for April delivery finished unchanged at 157.5 yen (US$1.28) per kilogram.
“There was no fresh news,” Yutaka Shoji Co analyst Jiong Gu said. “Many investors hold short positions, but they don’t want to unwind them as the market sentiment remained weak and Shanghai futures have been falling.”
The most active rubber contract on the Shanghai futures exchange, for January delivery, fell 15 yuan to finish at 10,480 yuan (US$1,641.76) a tonne.
Crude rubber inventories at Japanese ports stood at 11,070 tonnes at Oct 31, down 3.6% from the last inventory date, data from the Rubber Trade Association of Japan showed on Tuesday.
“If the inventory falls below 10,000 tonnes, that may give support to the TOCOM prices,” Gu said.
The front-month rubber contract on Singapore’s SICOM exchange for December delivery last traded at 117.5 U.S. cents per kilogram, down 0.4 cents.
(US$1 = 123.2500 yen)
(US$1 = 6.3834 Chinese yuan renminbi)
