TOCOM rubber ends down 1.1 pct on weak Shanghai futures

TOKYO, May 16 (Reuters) – Benchmark Tokyo rubber futures ended down 1.1 percent on Monday at a two-month closing low, in line with extended declines in Shanghai futures. Tokyo Commodity Exchange (TOCOM) futures, which set the tone for tyre rubber prices in Southeast Asia, fell 6 percent over the past two sessions, hurt by a selloff in the country’s commodities that showed signs of spreading to other global markets for raw materials such as palm oil and base metals.

The Tokyo Commodity Exchange rubber contract for October delivery JRUc6 0#2JRU: finished 1.1 yen lower at 172 yen per kg, the lowest settlement since March 16. “TOCOM declined on Shanghai weakness,” said a source with a Tokyo-based dealer.

“However, the overseas investors must be selling and buying Shanghai and TOCOM futures, and it should not be such a pain for them.” The most-active rubber contract on the Shanghai futures exchange for September delivery SNRcv1 fell 180 yuan to finish at 11,240 yuan per tonne as an improvement in China’s property sector offset several softer gauges of China’s economy. China’s fixed asset investment and retail sales grew more slowly than expected in April, as did factory output while new loans softened in April, adding to doubts about the outlook for the world’s second-largest economy.

The front-month rubber contract on Singapore’s SICOM exchange for June delivery STFc1 last traded at 140 U.S. cents per kg, down 1.7 cent.