TOKYO, March 14 (Reuters) – Benchmark Tokyo rubber futuresclosed little changed on Friday, but marked a nearly 4 percentweekly gain, supported by firm demand for rubber from othercountries.
The benchmark rubber contract on the Tokyo CommodityExchange (TOCOM) for August delivery rose 0.1 yen tosettle at 240.2 yen ($2.35) per kg, marking a weekly gain of 3.9percent -its biggest in more than three months.
“Tokyo has stockpiles and there’s a need for exportingrubber from Tokyo to places such as India and Shanghai,” said aTokyo-based broker.
“But it’s unlikely that this bullishness would last anylonger, considering the recent going back and forth in prices.”
Japan’s rubber inventories have been steadily increasingsince last October. Crude rubber inventories at Japanese portsstood at 21,456 tonnes as of Feb. 28, up 3.6 percent from 10days earlier, data from the Rubber Trade Association of Japanshowed a week ago.
The most-active rubber contract on the Shanghai futuresexchange for September delivery rose 15 yuan to finishat 15,740 yuan ($2,600) per tonne.
The front-month rubber contract on Singapore’s SICOMexchange for April delivery last traded at 196.60 U.S.cents per kg, down 1.7 cents.
($1 = 6.1361 Chinese Yuan)
($1 = 102.1300 Japanese Yen)
(Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori; Editing by Anand Basu)
Reuters
