Tokyo rubber futures extended gains for the seventh consecutive session on Thursday to hover above 320 yen, a near four-week high, riding on the coat-tails of soaring crude oil prices. The key Tokyo Commodity Exchange rubber contract for February delivery closed the morning at 321.5 yen per kg, after earlier rising about 1.4 percent to 323 yen, the highest level since August 4.
Traders said TOCOM rubber's fate continued to be strongly linked to that of international commodities, particularly crude oil. "TOCOM rubber's price has only recovered about half of what it lost after it started to slide in July, and I think there is a wait-and-see feeling in the market to see where we go from here," said Jun Nishimuta, an analyst at Kanetsu Asset Management.
The TOCOM benchmark contract fell about 17 percent after hitting a 28-year high of 356.9 yen on June 30, but prices started to bounce back from mid-August. US crude oil futures rose for a fourth straight session to head towards $119 a barrel on Thursday, amid concerns that a tropical storm going towards key US energy facilities in the Gulf of Mexico will intensify into a hurricane. The dollar was around 109.40 yen, compared with late US levels of 109.54/58 yen.
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