TOKYO (Aug 23): Benchmark Tokyo rubber futures edged lower in thin trade on Wednesday, dragged down by softer Shanghai futures.
“Rubber prices dropped despite a weaker yen against the US dollar as sliding Shanghai led the way down,” said Satoru Yoshida, a commodity analyst with Rakuten Securities.
The Tokyo Commodity Exchange (TOCOM) rubber contract for January delivery finished 0.7 yen lower at 215.8 yen per kg.
The most-active rubber contract on the Shanghai futures exchange for January delivery fell 110 yuan to finish at 16,475 yuan per tonne.
“Along with other commodities such as copper, iron ore and coal, rubber seemed to be in a correction after a rally since June,” Yoshida said.
London metals slipped on Wednesday as the dollar stood tall ahead of a meeting of global central bankers at Jackson Hole in the United States later in the week.
The front-month rubber contract on Singapore’s SICOM exchange for September delivery last traded at 154.1 US cents per kg, down 2.2 cents.
TOCOM said on Tuesday that it halted its evening trading session after a system glitch occurred at around 5pm local time (0800 GMT). It resumed trading from 8pm (1100 GMT), except for rubber futures which normally trade between 4:30pm to 7pm (0730-1000 GMT).
A TOCOM spokeswoman said the problem has been fixed and that the trading system was working normally on Wednesday.
