Tokyo rubber futures sank on Wednesday to briefly touch a one-week low in the absence of fresh news but traders refrained from selling aggressively ahead of this week's expiry of the spot contract. The benchmark August TOCOM rubber contract on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange closed down 1.0 yen per kg at 140.7 yen after wavering between 140.0 yen and 140.9 yen.
It previously hit a low of 140.0 yen on March 16.
Other contracts finished down 0.1-0.9 yen.
The March contract will expire on Friday.
"There was some long liquidation, but it wasn't a massive attempt to sell and much of the activity can probably be attributed to position adjustment ahead of this week's expiry," a Tokyo-based analyst said.
The benchmark contract has traded narrowly on both sides of the 140-yen mark since it topped that level in early February.
The analyst said the market might break away from its range-bound trade next week when the September contract debuts, but that it was likely to move around current levels until then barring unexpected news or developments.
Turnover in TOCOM rubber was 11,293 contracts, topping Tuesday's 9,717 lots. Open interest stood at 54,542 lots as of the end of Tuesday against 55,386 lots on Friday.
TOCOM was closed on Monday to mark a national holiday.