Tokyo rubber down

Tokyo rubber futures inched lower on Friday as a firm Japanese yen encouraged investors to liquidate contracts to avoid risks ahead of the weekend, but bright Chinese economic data helped pare losses, dealers said. The benchmark rubber contact on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange for April delivery was down 1.0 yen, settling at 256.9 yen per kg.
The dollar gained about 0.1 percent against the yen to 98.15 yen, after a volatile session on Thursday, which saw it spike to a near seven-week high of 99.41 yen and drop to a one-and-a-half week low of 97.63 yen. "The volatile yen spurred selling as players just wanted to avoid risks head of the weekend and the yen at around 98 per dollar was too strong for rubber futures," said a Bangkok-based dealer. The most-active rubber contract on the Shanghai futures exchange for January delivery was down 50 yuan, settling at 18,980 yuan ($3,100) per tonne. The front-month rubber contract on Singapore's SICOM exchange for December delivery was last traded at 228.9 US cents per kg, down 0.3 cents.