Rubber surges

Benchmark Tokyo rubber futures extended gains on Thursday after touching a four-month low earlier this week, as the dollar hovered near a 3-1/2-month high against the yen and Shanghai futures rose to a two-week high, brokers said. The Tokyo Commodity Exchange rubber contract for April delivery finished 1.4 yen higher at 199.8 yen ($1.75) per kg. The most-active rubber contract on the Shanghai futures exchange for January delivery finished 220 yuan higher at 13,785 yuan per tonne after touching 13,905 yuan, the highest since Oct. 16, in late trading.