Rubber futures steady amid 'bearish sentiment'

Tokyo – Natural rubber futures closed with a mixed picture during the trading week ended 17 Feb, with major exchanges reporting small changes over the period.

In Japan’s Osaka’s rubber futures dropped 1%, tracking a 0.6% decline in Shanghai, said Japan’s Stock Exchange JPX in its weekly report 20 Feb.

China’s INE's futures, on the other hand, close 1.9% up compared to the week before while Singapore’s SICOM futures closed “virtually unchanged”, amid small new selling flows from the previous week.

According to JPX, market sentiment remains bearish and further downside pressure is anticipated.

In other news, JPX said China's vehicle sales fell by 907,278 units in January to 1,648,966 units, mainly due to the week-long Chinese new year holidays at the end of the month.

New car sales, it added, are expected to recover to above 2 million units in February.