SINGAPORE: Japanese rubber futures rose on Thursday, tracking gains in the Shanghai market and buoyed by stronger domestic equities as an easing Covid-19 curbs in some Chinese cities lifted demand sentiment.

The Osaka Exchange rubber contract for May delivery was up 2.0 yen, or 0.9%, at 217.5 yen ($1.59) per kg, as of 0200 GMT. The rubber contract on the Shanghai futures exchange for January delivery was up 160 yuan, or 1.3%, at 12,930 yuan ($1,831) per tonne.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei share average opened up 1.09%. Chinese cities of Guangzhou and Chongqing announced an easing of Covid curbs on Wednesday, a day after demonstrators in southern Guangzhou clashed with police amid a string of protests against the world’s toughest coronavirus restrictions. Mainland China’s Health Commission reported 36,061 new coronavirus cases for Nov. 30, compared with 37,828 new cases a day earlier.

China’s factory activity shrank in November as widespread Covid curbs disrupted manufacturers’ output, a private sector survey showed. Japan’s manufacturing activity contracted for the first time in nearly two years in November, a private survey showed, as a slump in demand and output deepened driven largely by a slowdown in the global economy and still-elevated inflationary pressures.