Rubber slumped to the lowest level in nine months after the Japanese currency rallied the most in three years against the dollar, sapping investor appetite for yen-denominated futures.
The contract for delivery in November lost as much as 3.9 percent to 239 yen a kilogram ($2,476 a metric ton) on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange, the lowest since Sept. 12. Futures traded at 240.6 yen at 11 a.m., extending losses this year to 20 percent.
The yen traded at 96.47 per dollar after jumping as much as 3.2 percent yesterday, the biggest gain since May 2010. Asian stocks extended a global selloff as investors weighed growing reluctance by central banks to add stimulus after the Bank of Japan left its lending program unchanged.
“Futures lost support from the currency market after the Bank of Japan refrained from adding stimulus,” Naohiro Niimura, a partner at research company Market Risk Advisory Co. in Tokyo, said today by e-mail.
BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said policy makers will discuss longer funding operations should they become necessary, after leaving his April plan to double the nation’s monetary base unaltered.
Thai rubber free-on-board gained 0.7 percent to 88 baht ($2.83) a kilogram yesterday, according to the Rubber Research Institute of Thailand. Prices were supported by concern that rain across Thailand’s southern provinces, the nation’s main production area, disrupted tapping, according to Chaiwat Muenmee, an analyst at Bangkok-based broker DS Futures Co.
The Shanghai Futures Exchange is closed for a public holiday and will resume trade tomorrow.
Source: Bloomberh
