Thai RSS3 rubber, the benchmark physical price in Southeast Asia, changed hands overnight at $2.94 a kg for September shipment, while Indonesian SIR20 was sold at 126.75 and 127.75 cents a pound. RSS3 hit a lifetime high at $6.40 a kg in February 2011.

"Sentiment is gloomy, but there were small purchases by China last night," said a dealer in Kuala Lumpur.

The most active rubber contract on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange, currently December 2012, bounced slightly on Wednesday but was still trading near a 2-1/2 year low hit in the previous session.

Tokyo futures, which set the tone for physical prices, have been hit by worries the debt crisis in Europe could hurt global demand for commodities, including rubber.

China imported 985,970 tonnes of rubber from January to June, up 12.8 percent from a year ago, but a decline in prices since March suggests that the world's top consumer is buying the commodity on price dips.

China mainly imports rubber from Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia.