Japanese crude rubber stocks inched up by 10 tonnes, or 0.1 percent, to 9,979 tonnes as of December 10 from the previous survey on November 30, the Rubber Trade Association of Japan said on Friday. Rubber inventories, reported every 10 days, were about 10 percent below the year-earlier level of 11,114 tonnes.
Tokyo rubber futures drifted down on Friday, as traders squared off some of their positions ahead of the weekend after gains of more than 4 percent over the last week. The newly listed benchmark June contract on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange ended at 302.0 yen per kg, after the debuting at 302.7 yen on Thursday. The previous benchmark May contract closed down 1.4 yen to 298.6 yen.