TOKYO, May 13 (Reuters) – Benchmark Tokyo rubber futures ended down 5.4 percent on Friday, in line with sharp drops in Shanghai futures as a selloff in the country’s commodities showed signs of spreading to other global markets for raw materials such as palm oil and base metals. Weakening fundamentals along with strong measures by Chinese exchanges to stamp out speculative activity have helped reverse momentum in the country’s massive commodity futures markets from bullish to bearish in less than a month.
Tokyo Commodity Exchange (TOCOM) futures, which set the tone for tyre rubber prices in Southeast Asia, started morning trade about 3 percent lower and expanded losses after Shanghai futures fell further. The Tokyo Commodity Exchange rubber contract for October delivery JRUc6 0#2JRU: finished 9.8 yen lower at 173.1 yen per kg, after touching 171.6 yen, the lowest since March 17, earlier in the session. For the week, the benchmark contract fell 5.7 percent, extending the previous week’s 5.8 percent drop. “Something strange seems to be going on in the Chinese commodities,” said a broker source.
“TOCOM started sharply lower but widened losses after Shanghai extended overnight losses.” The U.S. dollar was quoted around 108.72 yen JPY= , compared with around 109.17 yen on Thursday afternoon. Rubber inventories in warehouses monitored by the Shanghai Futures Exchange rose 2.8 percent from last Friday, the exchange said on Friday. The most-active rubber contract on the Shanghai futures exchange for September delivery SNRcv1 fell 595 yuan to finish at 11,245 yuan per tonne.
The front-month rubber contract on Singapore’s SICOM exchange for June delivery STFc1 last traded at 140.40 U.S. cents per kg, down 5.8 cents.
(Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)
