The Tokyo Commodity Exchange (TOCOM) announced that June 2012 trading volume averaged 96,725 contracts per day, down 7.2% from May 2012.
The leading contracts at TOCOM saw month-over-month declines that outweighed increases in energy contracts and led to an overall decrease in volume; Gold Standard was down 12.1% to 42,588 contracts, Gold Mini was down 14.3% to 12,329 contracts and Rubber was down 9.3% to 8,965 contracts, while Crude Oil was up 6% to 5,457 contracts and Kerosene was up 14.3% to 3,043 contracts.
The TOCOM Gold Futures contract (Aug 2012) is trading at JPY 4,121
Persisting fears related to the euro-zone crisis and the global economic downturn discouraged market participants from making aggressive transactions and avoid risks related market Volatility . Under such circumstances, price volatility fell, which may have slowed trading.
Open interest at the end of June for all listed contracts totaled 327,039, a decrease of 13,580 (3.99%) from the prior month.