BANGKOK, Sept 12 (Reuters) – Tokyo rubber futures hit their
highest in seven weeks on Wednesday, fuelled by speculative
buying as investors hoped the Federal Reserve would step in this
week to stimulate the U.S. economy, dealers said.
But gains were still limited by profit-taking, they said.
The benchmark rubber contract on the Tokyo Commodity
Exchange for February delivery rose 5.6 yen to settle at
242.5 yen ($3.12) per kg, off the intra-day high of 243.3 yen
per kg, the highest since July 23.
The most-active rubber contract on the Shanghai futures
exchange for January delivery was up 110 yuan to finish
at 23,400 yuan ($3,700) per tonne.
The front-month October rubber contract on Singapore’s SICOM
exchange was last traded at $2.72 per kg, up 4.2 cents.
“Hopes about more stimulus measures from the Fed still
lingered on the market and supported prices, but prices did not
rise sharply as players took profit,” said a Bangkok trader.
Fed policymakers begin a two-day meeting on Wednesday and
recent weak U.S. economic data, including a rise in non-farm
jobs last month that was much smaller than forecast, has fueled
market expectations that the central bank will launch a third
round of bond-buying. [ID:nL1E8KAFYY]
Dealers said there was room for TOCOM prices to rise further
on Thursday as technical sentiment improved after prices
finished above a major support of 240 yen.
However, profit-taking could still cap the rises, they said.
($1=77.8000 Japanese yen)
($1=6.3351 Chinese yuan)

Source: Reuters

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