Benchmark Tokyo rubber futures rose for a third straight session on Thursday and hit a six-week high on the back of recovering oil prices and a slightly weaker yen against the dollar. The Tokyo Commodity Exchange rubber contract for May delivery finished up 2.4 yen at 170.7 yen per kg, after hitting 171.7 yen earlier, the highest since October 19.
The most-active rubber contract on the Shanghai futures exchange for May delivery fell 130 yuan to finish at 10,200 yuan per tonne. The front-month rubber contract on Singapore's SICOM exchange for January delivery last traded at 117.2 US cents per kg, down 0.1 cent. TOCOM also got support from a steep decline in inventories, sources said. Crude rubber inventories at Japanese ports stood at 9,742 tonnes as of November 20, down 8.1 percent from the last inventory date, Rubber Trade Association of Japan data showed.