SINGAPORE: Japanese rubber futures snapped a three-session rally on Tuesday, tracking losses on the Shanghai market as a fresh round of Covid-19 outbreaks in top consumer China raised demand concerns.

The Osaka Exchange’s rubber contract for March delivery finished 4.5 yen, or 1.9%, down at 230.0 yen ($1.58) per kg. Japan’s financial markets were closed on Monday for a public holiday in Japan. The rubber contract on the Shanghai futures exchange for January delivery fell 370 yuan to finish at 12,875 yuan ($1,792) per tonne. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei share average closed 2.64% down.

Past months have seen growing concerns over slowing rubber demand in China as the country struggles with a property crisis, heat waves disrupting production and extended lockdowns hitting industrial activity and consumption.

China’s auto sales rose 25.7% in September from a year earlier, a slower pace of growth compared with the previous two months, in which electric car sales grew at a faster rate because of government incentives. .