TOKYO (April 26): Benchmark Tokyo rubber futures ended up on Tuesday after hitting a near nine-month high, supported by recovery in oil prices, but the gains were limited due to a slightly stronger yen against the dollar.
Tokyo Commodity Exchange (TOCOM) futures, which set the tone for tyre rubber prices in Southeast Asia, has been gaining momentum recently amid hopes for improved demand from top consumer China.
Farmers in the Central Highlands coffee belt have been hit by the widening impact of the worst drought in three decades, brought on by the El Nino weather pattern.
Despite the drought, there is not much concern about an impact to the rubber production in Vietnam as production sites are far away from affected areas, said a source with a Tokyo-based broker.
The Tokyo Commodity Exchange rubber contract for October delivery <0#2JRU:> finished 0.3 yen higher at 201.3 yen (US$1.82) per kg, after earlier hitting the highest since Aug 3 of 203.5 yen.
The US dollar was trading around 110.89 yen, as compared with around 111.24 yen on Monday afternoon.
The most-active rubber contract on the Shanghai futures exchange for September delivery fell 80 yuan to finish at 13,015 yuan (US$2,005) per tonne.
The front-month rubber contract on Singapore’s SICOM exchange for May delivery last traded at 156 US cents per kg, down 1.1 cent.
(US$1 = 110.8300 yen)
(US$1 = 6.4929 Chinese yuan renminbi)
