Osaka Mercantile Exchange RSS3 Futures And Rubber Index Futures Weekly Report

On June 19, OME RSS3 futures opened mixed with players staying on the sidelines in the absence of fresh incentives. The current contract month rose by 0.3 yen to 67.00 yen where as the distant contract month fell by 0.6 yen to 77.40 yen from the previous close. On June 21, the distant contract rose to 79.20 yen on short-covering as the number of applications for the quality inspection this month was only 247 lots. Furthermore, the expectation that trading houses would take the physical deliveries at the current month's expiry added to the strong sentiment, too. On June 23, however, amid the yen's strength, the prices turned lower on long-liquidation. The continued decline in the stocks was not strong enough to dissipate the impression of the market overweighed by ample supplies. The current and distant contracts closed the week at 65.50 yen and 75.00 yen, respectively.

This week's volume in RSS3 futures market totaled 17,593 lots. The open interest totaled 27,239 lots as of June 23.

At the beginning of the week, on June 19, taking over the weak sentiment from the previous week, OME Rubber index futures opened lower on long-liquidation. Distant December contract went down by 0.95 to 74.20 from the last week's close. Later, distant month in OME RSS3 futures continued to be sluggish on the lack of fresh buying due to the narrowed gap between OME RSS3 and Thai offer prices despite the firmer current month ahead of its expiry. With this factor, distant month in OME Index futures hovered around the 74 point level.

On June 22, distant month sank to the day's limit-low at 72.05 on active long-liquidation and bears' selling amid the concerns about the overbought conditions as the spread between the index value and distant month widened to more than ten points. On June 23, distant month extended the loss to 71.35 on continued selling as the yen surged to the 104 yen level against the U.S. dollar for the first time in the past two months on the expectation that the Bank of Japan would soon terminate its policy of maintaining the short term rates near zero.

This week's total volume of trading totaled 24,636 lots. The open interest totalled 30,421 lots as of June 23.