Benchmark Tokyo rubber futures hit a 10-day high on Thursday, buoyed by a slight gain in Shanghai futures, brokers said. The Tokyo Commodity Exchange rubber contract for new April delivery debuted on Thursday with an initial price of 199.8 yen ($1.76) and finished the day up 2.5 cents at 202.3 yen. Earlier it hit an intraday high of 203 yen, the highest since Oct. 16.
The most-active rubber contract on the Shanghai futures exchange for January delivery rose 50 yuan to finish at 13,555 yuan ($2,043) per tonne. The front-month rubber contract on Singapore's SICOM exchange for November delivery last traded at 142.50 US cents per kg, down 1.1 cent. In market news, Indonesia's car sales in September fell 5.3 from a year earlier.