Key TOCOM rubber futures rose on Monday, stretching gains into a third straight session, helped by promising manufacturing data from key consumer China.
FUNDAMENTALS
* The most-active Tokyo Commodity Exchange rubber contract for May delivery <0#2JRU:> was up 2.9 yen, or 1.1 percent, at 262 yen per kg as of 0038 GMT. The benchmark contract hit a four-week high of 263 yen last week.
* China's economy resumed momentum in November, but there are still signs of over-reliance on growth from the inefficient state sector, a series of purchasing managers' surveys shows.
The official manufacturing purchasing managers' index rose to a 7-month high of 50.6 in November from 50.2 in October, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Saturday.
* Crude rubber inventories at Japanese ports eased from a two-month high earlier in November to 6,520 tonnes by Nov. 20, having fallen 219 tonnes in the last 10 days, Rubber Trade Association data showed on Friday.
* Stagnant U.S. budget talks which threaten to derail the world's largest economy kept investors cautious. A series of central banks including the Reserve Bank of Australia, the European Central Bank and the Bank of England, will hold their policy meetings this week. The monthly U.S. nonfarm payrolls data is due out on Friday.
* North Korea said it would carry out its second rocket launch of 2012 as its youthful leader Kim Jong-un flexes his muscles a year after his father's death, in a move that South Korea and the United States swiftly condemned as a provocation.
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MARKET NEWS
* Japan's Nikkei average rose in early trade on Monday, extending gains from a seven-month closing high hit in the previous session, as a weaker yen and improved Chinese manufacturing data supported sentiment.
* The dollar traded at around 82.40 yen, hovering not far from a near eight-month high of 82.82 yen hit in November.
* Oil rose on Friday, notching its first monthly gain since August, as the market continued to balance risks to demand from the U.S. budget standoff against concerns about disruption to Middle East supplies.
