Tokyo Commodity Exchange (TOCOM) futures inched higher on Wednesday as a rally in Shanghai futures helped improve investor sentiment. TOCOM's rubber contract for July delivery finished 0.3 yen higher at 175.0 yen ($1.60) per kg. The most-active rubber contract on the Shanghai futures exchange for May delivery jumped 335 yuan to finish at 11,215 yuan ($1,602) per tonne.
The front-month rubber contract on Singapore's SICOM exchange for March delivery last traded at 130.7 US cents per kg, down 0.4%. The death toll from a coronavirus outbreak in China passed 490, as two US airlines suspended flights to Hong Kong following the first fatality there and 10 cases were confirmed on a cruise ship quarantined in Japan. Chinese policymakers are readying measures to support an economy jolted by the coronavirus outbreak that is expected to have a devastating impact on first-quarter growth, policy sources said.
"A recovery in the Shanghai stock market lent support to Shanghai rubber prices, which supported the TOCOM," said Satoru Yoshida, a commodity analyst with Rakuten Securities.
China stocks climbed as investors bet on further policy support from Beijing to offset the impact of the fast-spreading coronavirus. "It looks inevitable that the virus will spread further given high traffics of people across the globe. We may need to wait for warmer season to end the epidemic or wait for some existing medicines to become effective to treat the disease," the analyst said.