Benchmark Tokyo rubber futures slid on Thursday, weighed down by declining crude oil prices and weak fundamentals, even though Shanghai recovered from three sessions of falls. The Tokyo Commodity Exchange rubber contract for April delivery
finished 1.7 yen ($0.0151) lower at 161.3 yen per kg. TOCOM's technically specified rubber (TSR) 20 futures contract for May delivery started trading on Thursday at an opening price of 147 yen per kg and settled at 145.9 yen per kg.
The most-active rubber contract on the Shanghai futures exchange for January delivery rose 45 yuan ($6.47) to finish at 11,265 yuan per tonne. The front-month rubber contract on Singapore's SICOM exchange for December delivery last traded at 124.1 US cents per kg, up 0.2 cent.
Tokyo Commodity Exchange (TOCOM) futures, which set the tone for rubber prices in Southeast Asia, hit their lowest in over two years a day earlier amid rising supplies and faltering demand. "On one hand, there is pressure from oil prices. On the other, rubber fundamentals have been quite weak and there's no improvement," said Cao Lu, a senior analyst with Orient Futures.
"The Sino-US trade war's impact on tyre export is also getting more obvious. Rubber prices are under a lot of pressure." Oil prices slipped on signs of rising supply and growing concerns that demand might weaken on the prospect of a global economic slowdown.