"Sentiment is a bit bearish, as one can see from the fact that spot June expired lower yesterday. It will remain difficult for the market to aim higher because the newly released rubber stock data is also depressing the market," a technical analyst said.

Crude rubber stocks at private warehouses as of June 20 totalled 44,647 tonnes, up from 44,452 tonnes as of June 10, the Japan Rubber Trade Association said late on Thursday.

Spot June slipped to expire at 65 yen the same day. TOCOM said it was the lowest level since the 67.90 yen expiry for the April contract, although it was within market expectations.

The sources said they did not see fresh factors that could significantly motivate the market next week, but some said players were focusing on China's expected announcement on import licenses for natural rubber tomeet domestic demand.

"The market is talking a lot about it, but there should be an official announcement soon," a senior brokerage official said.

"China's domestic rubber stocks are down, pushing up prices there. Naturally, they will have to issue import licenses to cover that deficit," he said. The announcement is likely to come later this month or at the beginning of July, he said.

Earlier this week, trade sources close to Chinese buyers said China has not yet issued the licences despite its purchase of about 20,000 tonnes from Thailand the previous week.

Some market sources said they expect a range of between 77 yen and 82 yen for the newly released benchmark December.

"The midpoint is 80 yen. The market will decide whether it wants to go up or down from there," the technical analyst said.

Others, however, said the Tokyo market would remain relatively unchanged as producing nations are finding it difficult to cover their production costs at current prices.

"Offers at 60 cents in Thailandmean their margin is negative. Indonesia is in a worse situation. I don't think they will lower their offers much more, meaning that the futures market will not move much either," the analyst said. Thai rubber was offered to Japan at about 60 US cents per kg on an fob basis on Friday, down from 62 US cents the previous week.

Open interest in Tocom rubber futures, a barometer of the contract's popularity among investors, was 176,931 lots at the end of Thursday trade, down from 195,610 lots last week.