The futures had risen to a fresh five-month high earlier on Monday, the seventh straight session to have scaled this milestone, buoyed by the prospects of recovery of the economy and growing demand. The key Tokyo Commodity Exchange rubber contract for August delivery settled down 3 yen or 0.9 percent at 336.9 yen. The benchmark contract rose as high as 344.4 yen, the highest since Sept. 22. "Newcomers are aggressively buying on the TOCOM on improvement on technicals, but the current price does not reflect demand and we expect the price to fall as low as 320 yen soon," said a trader. The contract stayed well above the key 25-day moving average of 322 yen on Monday. The Shanghai and Singapore market both fell in part on worries about a high level of inventories in China. The most active Shanghai rubber contract for May delivery closed down 1 percent to 28,910 yuan per tonne. The front-month March rubber contract on SICOM was last traded at 377.5 US cents per kg, down 3.8 cents. Tokyo rubber futures could challenge a series of levels last seen in September on firm oil prices, dealers said on Monday. Japan's Nikkei share average eased from a seven-month high on Monday, ending a three-day rally on profit taking after the index briefly topped 9,700, but remains on track for its best February since 1991. Brent crude slipped below $125 and snapped five days of gains with investors booking profits after prices surged to 10-month highs due to concerns over supply disruption as tension rose over Iran's disputed nuclear programme.