Tokyo Commodity Exchange (TOCOM) futures jumped on Thursday as investors bet on rising prices of the commodity on reports of drought and disease in major producing regions. The benchmark TOCOM rubber contract for December delivery finished 2.6 yen ($0.0241) higher at 188.7 yen per kg.
The most-active rubber contract on the Shanghai futures exchange for September delivery rose 210 yuan ($30.55) to finish at 10,860 yuan per tonne. The front-month rubber contract on Singapore's SICOM exchange for August delivery last traded at 142.1 US cents per kg.
"The market is speculating on reports of drought in Thailand and disease in Indonesia," said Tang Xiaonan, analyst, JLC Network Technology Co Ltd. "But actually the drought mainly hit northern regions in Thailand, which are not major production bases of rubber, while disease in Indonesia did not happen overnight. So it was mainly just speculation of the news," Tang said.
Drought has been declared in more than a dozen provinces in Thailand's main rice-growing northern and northeastern regions, where rainfall was the lowest in 10 years.