Osaka Mercantile Exchange Weekly Rubber Market Review

RSS3 Futures: Distant month: opening 70.8 yen, a high 71.2 yen (Jul.27), low 66.0 yen (Jul.29), closing 66.5 yen. Rubber Index Futures: Distant month: opening 67.95, a high 67.95 (Jul.26), a low 62.75 (Jul.30), closing 62.75 points. On July 26, the RSS3's spot contract expired below the 60 yen level at 59.3 yen with 785 lots of delivery: the largest quantity this year. The expiry price was the lowest since the RSS3 futures started. On July 29, amid the yen's strength, the price in distant contract descended to the all time-low at 66.0 yen on stop loss selling as there were some weak factors: such as the increase in rubber stocks in Japan; fears over the return of the delivered physicals to the market; and the price falls in the producing areas despite the reinforcement of the intervention by Thai government and despite the increase in import quotas issued by China's State Planing and Development Commission. In rubber index futures, with weak sentiment, some contracts hit the daily limit-lows for two onsequtive days on July 28, 29 in line with the easier tone in the RSS3 futures. The market players said that the rubber stocks in Japan would peak in August. This week's total volume in RSS3 futures market was 30,175 lots, and it was 20,247 lots in index futures market.