Rubber rises

Benchmark Tokyo rubber futures snapped a 3-day losing streak on Friday after hitting a 2-1/2 month low earlier in the session, with investors looking for bargains and helped by a weaker yen, but it still booked a weekly loss amid falling Shanghai futures. "Rubber markets in Tokyo and Shanghai have peaked out," said Masayo Kondo, president of Commodity Intelligence, a Japanese commodities market research company. "Chinese speculators have been moving out from rubber and other commodities and supply fears (that) emerged early this year in the wake of the Thai flooding have eased," he added, predicting a bearish trend going forward.
The Tokyo Commodity Exchange (TOCOM) futures, which set the tone for tyre rubber prices in Southeast Asia, have lost nearly 30 percent since hitting the highest since 2011 in late January. The TOCOM rubber contract for August delivery finished 4.7 yen, or 1.8 percent, higher at 261.7 yen ($2.27) per kg on Friday, after hitting the lowest since December 29 of 255.4 yen earlier in the session. For the week, it marked a 4.1 percent drop. On the downside, the most-active rubber contract on the Shanghai futures exchange for May delivery slid 80 yuan to finish at 17,640 yuan ($2,551) per tonne. The front-month rubber contract on Singapore's SICOM exchange for April delivery last traded at 199.4 US cents per kg, up 1.8 cent. Rubber inventories at TOCOM-approved warehouses fell to 1,421 tonnes as of February 28, the lowest since July 2010 and down 80 percent from a year ago, according to TOCOM data.