SINGAPORE: Japanese rubber futures rose over 1% on Thursday on hopes of fresh fiscal stimulus measures from top consumer China, although lower synthetic rubber and oil prices limited gains.

The Osaka Exchange (OSE) rubber contract for March delivery closed up 4 yen, or 1.03%, at 391.0 yen ($2.70) per kg. The rubber contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) for January delivery, however, fell 75 yuan, or 0.41%, to 18,440 yuan ($2,627.15) per metric ton. The most active November butadiene rubber contract on the

SHFE fell 310 yuan, or 1.92%, to 15,820 yuan ($2,253.88) per metric ton.

On Thursday, Chinese leaders vowed to deploy “necessary fiscal spending” to meet this year’s economic growth target of roughly 5%, acknowledging new problems and raising market expectations for fresh stimulus on top of measures announced this week.

The politburo’s pledge come days after the central bank announced its most aggressive set of monetary policy easing measures since the pandemic, flagging cuts to a broad range of interest rates and a 1 trillion yuan ($142.45 billion) liquidity injection, among other steps.