This entry was posted on Thursday, January 14th, 2010 at 8:16 pm and is filed under Rubber News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
BANGKOK, Jan 14 (Reuters) – Tokyo rubber futures ended higher on Thursday, breaking above the major psychological level of 300 yen on the back of recovering oil prices, dealers said.
* The benchmark rubber contract on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange <0#JRU:> rose 7.2 yen to settle at 303.8 yen ($3.32) per kg.
* Dealers said rubber prices rose on speculative buying triggered by a rally in oil prices.
* Oil rose above $80 a barrel on Thursday as traders moved to cover short positions, taking advantage of a drop to 2010 lows the previous day on surprise gains in U.S. distillates and crude stocks. [ID:nSGE60C062]
* Stronger oil prices make alternative synthetic rubber prices expensive and encourage users to shift to natural rubber.
* Dealers said they expected TOCOM prices to rise further on Friday as technical sentiment improved with prices above 300 yen.
* The world’s top three rubber producers will hold a ministerial meeting in Malaysia next week to seek ways to stabilise prices, a senior official said. [ID: nSGE60D03D] ($1=91.63 YEN)
Source: Reuters