Tokyo rubber futures fell on Wednesday on profit-taking in extremely light trade, with the market unable to find sufficient incentives to hold onto morning gains.
The benchmark January 2005 contract on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange settled down 0.7 yen per kg at 143.9 yen. The day's low, after hitting a high of 145.6 yen.
Other months fell by 0.3 to 1.5 yen.
"The market lacked the strength to chase prices higher," a Tokyo analyst said.
It looks like the traditional "Bon" summer holiday - when many Japanese take a vacation though markets remain open - has started for the market, he said, noting that trading volume has fallen significantly from Tuesday.
The volume of TOCOM rubber traded on Wednesday was an estimated 4,798 lots, versus Tuesday's 6,039 lots.
Trading volume is expected to remain light, barring some unexpected development, until market players start to return from vacations during the coming week. Lacking fresh news, the rubber market has mostly looked to currency markets for direction.