SINGAPORE, Oct 1 (Reuters) –
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Japanese rubber futures rose on Tuesday on the back of a weaker yen and an aggressive Chinese stimulus package, although gains were limited by soft economic data across Asia, particularly in top consumer China.
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The Osaka Exchange (OSE) rubber contract for March delivery JRUc6, 0#2JRU: closed up 8.8yen, or 2.18%,at 412.1 yen ($2.85) per kg.
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The Shanghai Futures Exchange is closed from Oct. 1 to 7 for the National Day holiday. Trading will resume on Tuesday, Oct. 8.
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The one-week holiday in China may see softened trading activity for the OSE contract, which still has room for further upside, Japan Exchange Group said in a report.
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The yen fell nearly 0.5% to 144.34 per dollar JPY=EBS after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell pushed back overnight against bets of more supersized interest rate cuts. USD/
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A weaker Japanese currency makes yen-denominated assets more affordable to overseas buyers. FRX/
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Japan’s Nikkei .N225 rose nearly 2% on a softer yen as investors contended with perceived monetary policy hawk Shigeru Ishiba becoming the country’s prime minister.T.
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Analysts say Beijing’sconsumer-focused efforts this year arelikely to be enough to bring China’s 2024 growth back to about 5% after below-forecast data in the past several months cast doubts over that target, but hardly change the long-term outlook.
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Asia’s factory activity weakened in September as soft Chinese demand and global economic uncertainty pointed to a challenging outlook, keeping policymakers under pressure to shore up fragile growth.
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Chinese manufacturing activity shrank sharply in September as new orders at home and abroad cooled, pulling down factory owners’ confidence to near record lows.
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In Japan, factory activity shrank, highlighting the toll weak global demand was taking on Asian exporters.
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The front-month November rubber contract on the SingaporeExchange’s SICOM platform STFc1 last traded at 215.8 U.S. cents per kg, up 0.1%.
($1 = 144.4400 yen)
Reporting by Gabrielle Ng; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu and Janane Venkatraman
