Tokyo Commodity Exchange (TOCOM) futures ended flat on Thursday amid concerns of rising supplies. The benchmark TOCOM rubber contract for December delivery finished unchanged at 177.2 yen ($1.64) per kg. The most-active rubber contract on the Shanghai futures exchange for September delivery, however, rose 0.4% to finish at 10,735 yuan ($1,563.36) per tonne. TOCOM's technically specified rubber (TSR) 20 futures contract for January delivery closed up 2.5 yen at 153.1 yen per kg.
The front-month rubber contract on Singapore's SICOM exchange for August delivery last traded at 140.5 US cents per kg, up 0.4%. "We're seeing some short-covering as prices are pretty low already," said a Singapore-based trader. "Fundamentally, we are also seeing a steady supply increment while demand is not so good as the biggest user China is still going through a trade war with the US," the trader said.
The US dollar was last quoted at 108.02 yen on Thursday afternoon, compared with 108.46 on Wednesday. Oil futures hit a six-week high on Thursday as oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico were evacuated ahead of a storm, while an incident with a British tanker in the Middle East highlighted ongoing tensions in the region.