Tokyo rubber futures jumped more than 1 percent on Tuesday as firmness in oil prices and bullish technical signals prompted active buying from investment funds. Tokyo rubber prices advanced despite a big delivery for the front-month June rubber futures contract.
The June contract expired at 338.2 yen a kg, with 394 lots or 1,970 tonnes of deliveries. The number of deliveries was the highest since the June 2007 contract expired a year ago with 402 lots of deliveries, a TOCOM spokesman said. The key Tokyo Commodity Exchange rubber contract for November delivery was trading at 347.5 yen per kg as of 0415 GMT, up 2.5 yen or 0.7 percent from Monday's close.
It briefly hit a one-week high of 349.6 yen, but shied away from psychological resistance at 350 yen. But the technical trend was strong after benchmark rubber jumped nearly 5 percent from a low of 334.0 yen hit on Friday. The key November contract also rose above key moving average levels, including the seven-day average of around 345 yen.
Asian physical rubber prices advanced in line with the strength in Tokyo and Shanghai futures prices, but many buyers were on the sidelines avoiding purchasing large volumes at high prices. The most-active September rubber futures contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange was up 590 yuan, or 2.2 percent, at 27,955 yuan a tonne.