The prices remained boxed in a narrow range with players staying on the sidelines as they expected the end of the wintering season on the arrival of Songkran New Year festival period in Thailand from April 13. On April 17, distant month sank to 76.5 yen on distressed selling by longs due to the yen's surge and the sharp fall in the Tokyo Stock Exchange in line with the historic plunge in N.Y. stocks. On April 19, current and distant months declined to 61.0 yen and 75.1 yen respectively on continued long-liquidation due to the fears over the lack of takers of physical delivery at the expiry.
On April 24, current month expired marginally higher at 62.4 yen, up 0.7 yen from the previous close on short-covering and taking delivery by foreign trade houses in response to the widened spread between OME and Thai offer prices. After the firmer expiry, there were some bullish factors, such as the decrease in Japanese rubber stocks as of April 20 by 2,000 tonnes from March 20 to the 48,000 tonnes level and the firmer tone in the physical prices due to the delayed tapping by the heavy rains despite the fact that the wintering period had ended. With these factors, on April 27, distant month advanced to 81.2 yen. On April 28, distant month edged down to close at 79.8 yen on light long-liquidation ahead of a series of national holidays called the "Golden Week" in Japan.
The volume of trading in April totaled 101,991 lots, and the open interest totaled 38,860 lots as of April 28. On April 3, amid the lack of market-moving factors, OME Rubber index futures opened easier on long-liquidation due to the yen's rise. Distant month went down by 0.35 to 75.20 from the previous month's level. On April 5, however, distant month rose to 79.05 on short-covering and bargain hunting by public investors due to the weakened yen by the intervention of Bank of Japan and to the gain in the physical prices. On April 10, however, amid the growing concerns about the overbought conditions, distant month fell to 75.05 on profit-taking for the correction as the spread between current and distant months widened by 1.30 points from the beginning of the month.
On April 11, the new October contract opened at 76.60, 1.20 higher than the September contract. On April 12, distant month steadied to 78.55 as the prices at SICOM rose on the tight supplies. There were, however, some bearish factors, such as the yen's surge led by the plunge in N.Y. stocks, an increase in Japanese rubber stocks and the fears over the lack of takers of physical delivery at RSS3 expiry. With these factors, on April 19, distant month recorded its life-time low at 71.35 on aggressive long-liquidation and bears' selling.
On April 24, current month in RSS3 futures expired calmly on unexpected presence of trade houses taking delivery. Furthermore, bullish factors appeared such as the price-gains in the producing countries and the yen's weakness on the rise in N.Y. stocks. With these factors, on April 26, distant month advanced to 75.45 on short-covering and fresh buying by public investors who were optimistic about the gain in the near term. Toward the end of the month, however, buying interest waned in the absence of fresh incentives. On April 28, distant month closed marginally lower at 73.80 with players taking a wait-and-see attitude ahead of the long holidays.
The volume of trading for this month totaled 138,952 lots. The open interest totaled 35,895 lots as of April 28.
