* The benchmark TOCOM rubber contract for January delivery

finished 2.8 yen, or 1.7%, higher at 168.8 yen ($1.59) per kg. For the week, it booked a 0.2% drop, hit by growing concerns over recession risk.

* "Stronger equities markets and higher oil prices helped boost risk-on mode among investors," said Hideshi Matsunaga, analyst at Sunward Trading.

* "Thailand's stimulus plans to support farmers are also expected to help shore up sagging physical rubber prices and the TOCOM," he said.

* Thailand, the world's biggest rubber producer, is planning a stimulus package worth $10 billion that will include support for farmers and tourism, its finance minister said on Friday, in a move to shore up a flagging economy.

* The most-active rubber contract on the Shanghai futures exchange for September delivery fell 45 yuan to finish at 11,375 yuan ($1,615) per tonne. China's new technically specified rubber (TSR) 20 futures contract was last down 30 yuan at 9,875 yuan per tonne.

* Rubber inventories in warehouses monitored by the Shanghai Futures Exchange rose 0.7% from last Friday, the exchange said on Friday.

* The World Trade Organization (WTO) said on Thursday that its latest economic barometer showed that the growth in merchandise trade was likely to weaken further in the third quarter.

* The U.S. dollar was quoted around 106.18 yen, compared with around 105.90 yen on Thursday afternoon

* Crude oil prices rose more than 1% on Friday following two days of declines, buoyed after data showing an increase in retail sales in the United States helped dampen concerns about a recession in the world's biggest economy.

* Japan's benchmark Nikkei stock average edged up Friday after markets in China and Hong Kong found some stability amid ongoing unrest in Hong Kong, but the gains were limited by nagging fears of a global economic slowdown.

* TOCOM's TSR 20 futures contract for February delivery

closed unchanged at 145.4 yen per kg

* The front-month rubber contract on Singapore's SICOM exchange for September delivery last traded at 130.4 U.S. cents per kg, up 0.5%.