TOKYO: Japanese government bond prices eased on Friday, with buying limited ahead of the Japanese fiscal year-end and a 10-year JGB auction next week, but the market posted a positive return in the fiscal year.
Ten-year JGB futures fell 0.08 point to 150.77, with a trading volume of 22,455 lots.
Japanese investors paused ahead of their book closing on March 31, while many foreign investors were absent because of the Easter holiday.
For the current financial year, Nomura BPI, one of the most popular JGB index, returned about 0.8 percent, better than a negative return of 1.2 percent in the previous year, the first annual loss in more than a decade.
The benchmark 10-year JGB yield rose 1 basis point to 0.045 percent, off four-month low of 0.020 percent touched last week, while the 20-year JGB yield rose 0.5 basis point to 0.525 percent.
The two-year JGB yield rose 0.5 basis point to minus 0.135 percent, the highest in seven weeks.
The five-year JGB yield rose 0.5 basis point to minus 0.105 percent.
The market's focus is on the BOJ's announcement on its bond buying at 5:00 p.m. (0800 GMT).
Many market players suspect the BOJ is reluctant to reduce the target amount of buying on fears such a move could be taken as a reduction in its stimulus and spur a rise in the yen.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.