TOKYO, Jan 24 (Reuters) – Key TOCOM rubber futures slipped for the fourth consecutive session on Thursday, pulled down by a decline in prices in Shanghai to a one-week low on worries of swelling inventories.
The most active Shanghai rubber contract for May delivery <0#SNR:> lost as much as 2.2 percent before closing down 1.7 percent at 25,640 yuan per tonne.
“A high level of inventories in producing countries has become an investor focus, putting strong pressure on the market,” said Toshitaka Tazawa, analyst at trading company Fujitomi Co.
The key Tokyo Commodity Exchange rubber contract for June delivery <0#2JRU:> settled down 0.3 percent, or 1 yen, at 307.3 yen per kg after falling as much as 0.7 percent.
The front-month February rubber contract <0#STF:> on the SICOM in Singapore was last traded at 304 U.S. cents per kg, down 0.1 percent.
Positive Chinese manufacturing data and the yen weakening to around 89.34 were eclipsed by North Korea threatening a nuclear test.
North Korea said it would carry out a nuclear test that would target the United States, dramatically stepping up its threats against a country it called its “sworn enemy”.
The HSBC flash purchasing managers’ index, a preliminary private survey, showed that growth in China’s factory sector accelerated to a two-year high in January, briefly spurring markets higher.
Japan’s Nikkei share average gained 1.3 percent, after the strong China data helped firms with high exposure to the world’s second-largest economy, while Brent crude held above $112 a barrel.
(Reporting by Yuko Inoue; editing by Miral Fahmy)
Source: Reuters
