TOCOM's rubber contract for June 2010 delivery settled 4.2 yen a kg higher at 299 yen, having hit an intraday high of 300.7 yen - not far from a 16-month high of 306 yen seen on Friday. "It seems the funds are very keen to buy this market. They still believe in the uptrend in the commodities markets. Oil is high and gold is also slightly firmer," said a dealer in Thailand's southern city of Hat Yai.
Oil prices were steady above $78 a barrel on expectations that Chinese economic indicators to be published this week will signal strong demand growth from the world's second-largest oil consumer. Platinum hit multi-month highs on healthy demand after the launch of new US-based exchange-traded funds backed by the metals, lifting the price of gold.
Copper prices rallied about a percent, supported by a weaker dollar and optimism about Chinese imports of the metal ahead of key economic data to be released later this week. In the physical market, SIR20 was traded at 140 US cents per pound FOB Belawan in North Sumatra for February shipment, while RSS3 changed hands at $3.12 a kg for March.
The world's top three rubber producers are weighing plans for a fund to regulate supply flows of the commodity to markets, but stopped short of action to rein in rising prices, a Malaysian minister said on Tuesday. With tyre grades hovering near 56-year highs, producers Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia, which account for 70 percent of global output, have no plans to fix a new threshold price for rubber, Bernard Dompok, Malaysia's commodities minister, told reporters.