Key Tokyo rubber futures settled up 1.2 percent on Wednesday and recovered to the level seen before last week's selloff, tracking gains in Shanghai, but the market later lost momentum on signs the Chinese economy might be cooling. The key Tokyo Commodity Exchange rubber contract for October delivery rose as much as 387.4 yen, up 2.6 percent, before it settled up 5.7 yen at 383.2 yen per kg.
"The market lost steam after the Chinese economic data that showed inflation had eased," said a trader. The Tokyo market tends to be more affected by the speculative Shanghai rubber market these days, making it hard to predict the future pricing trend, he added. The most active Shanghai rubber futures contract for September delivery fell 350 yuan to close at 31,130 yuan per tonne on Wednesday. Volume stood at 959,274 lots.
Oil prices fell, turning negative after earlier highs, as the focus shifted from robust demand from China to signs that the world's second-largest economy might be cooling. China's inflation eased in April to 5.3 percent and other data, including for industrial output and loans, suggested the world's top rubber consumer may be cooling and there was less need for further aggressive monetary tightening.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.