Tokyo rubber futures rose more than 3 percent to a one-week high on Thursday due to speculative buying ahead of a meeting of top producing countries on ways to support prices, dealers said. The benchmark rubber contract on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange for April delivery rose 9.3 yen to settle at 278.6 yen ($3.62) per kg. It rose as much as 3.9 percent to 279.8 yen, the highest since November 9.
The most active Shanghai rubber futures contract for May delivery rose 845 yuan to finish at 25,850 yuan ($4,073) per tonne. "Players continued to buy contracts. However, it seemed like prices lacked the momentum to rise further as weaker oil still weighed on the market," one dealer said. Dealers said TOCOM prices were expected to remain firm in anticipation of measures that could be adopted by the major producing countries, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia, who are due to meet in Bangkok on Friday and Saturday.