TOKYO, Nov 8 (Reuters) – Benchmark Tokyo rubber futures hit a new six-month high on Tuesday, getting support from a jump in Shanghai futures on the back of a weak yuan and yen. Tokyo Commodity Exchange (TOCOM) futures, which set the tone for tyre rubber prices in Southeast Asia, were slightly lower on profit-taking in Tuesday morning trade after hitting a six-month high in the previous session, but posted firm gains in afternoon trade as Shanghai futures jumped around 6 percent.
Chinese yuan hovered around a one-week low, while Japanese yen stayed weak against the dollar on growing signs that Democrat Hillary Clinton would likely to win the U.S.presidential election.
The sharp rise in Shanghai futures came as the exchange operator said it will raise the intraday transaction fee for rubber futures to 0.01 percent from 0.0045 percent of the trading value from Nov.9.
“Though trading volatility was not seen as that big, this action may represent an intention to curb trading activities of individual investors,” said a Tokyo-based broker. China’s natural and synthetic rubber imports in October rose 9.8 percent from a year ago to 450,000 tonnes, preliminary Chinese trade data showed.Some market sources attributed the rise in imports as one of the causes for firm rubber futures.
The Tokyo Commodity Exchange rubber contract for April delivery JRUc6 0#2JRU: finished 2.7 yen higher at 189.8 yen ($1.82) per kg after touching 192.5 yen earlier, the highest since May 2. The most-active rubber contract on the Shanghai futures exchange for January delivery SNRcv1 rose 855 yuan to finish at 15,115 yuan ($2,231) per tonne.
The front-month rubber contract on Singapore’s SICOM exchange for December delivery STFc1 last traded at 157.80 U.S. cents per kg, up 3.9 cents.
($1 = 104.3900 yen)
($1 = 6.7762 Chinese yuan)
(Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri)
