Tokyo Commodity Exchange (TOCOM) futures plunged more than 4% on Friday, extending losses into a fifth straight session and marking a 9% loss for the week, as growing number of coronavirus cases outside China fuelled fears of global economic slowdown. TOCOM's rubber contract for August delivery finished 8.2 yen, or 4.5%, lower at 172.2 yen ($1.56) per kg, after hitting the lowest since February 4 of 171.6 yen earlier in the session.
For the month, it booked a 5% drop and a second straight monthly loss. The most-active rubber contract on the Shanghai futures exchange for May delivery tumbled 765 yuan to finish at 10,550 yuan per tonne. The front-month rubber contract on Singapore's SICOM exchange for March delivery last traded at 125.9 US cents per kg, down 6.8%.
Rubber inventories in warehouses monitored by the Shanghai Futures Exchange unchanged, the exchange said on Friday. Hopes that the epidemic that started in China would be over in months and that economic activity would quickly return to normal have been shattered this week as the number of international cases have spiralled.
Coronavirus panic sent world share markets crashing again on Friday, compounding their worst week since the 2008 global financial crisis and bringing the wipeout in value terms to $5 trillion. Japan's benchmark Nikkei stock average sank nearly 4%.
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