JGBs edge down; BOJ December purchase details awaited

TOKYO: Japanese government bonds edged down on Thursday as the market's attention turned from a two-year sale to details of the Bank of Japan's debt-buying operation plan for December, which will be announced later in the day.

The benchmark 10-year cash JGB yield added one basis point to 0.035 percent. The 10-year JGB futures contract slipped 0.13 point to close at 150.93.

The two-year JGB yield rose 1.5 basis points to minus 0.160 percent, and the 5-year JGB yield also gained 1.5 basis points to minus 0.115 percent.

At the Ministry of Finance's sale of 2.2 trillion yen of two-year JGBs with a 0.10 percent coupon, 56.8963 percent of the bids were accepted at the lowest price of 100.53.

The sale drew bids of 4.76 times the amount offered, indicating decent demand, though still down from the previous sale's bid-to-cover ratio of 5.93 times

In the super-long zone, the 20-year yield added half a basis point to 0.570 percent, while the 30-year yield was flat at 0.825 percent.

Every month, the BOJ announces the buying dates and also a range of the amount it intends to purchase in order to smoothen market volatility. This month, the central bank has kept its buying range intact from October.

The central bank will disclose the details of its December buying operations in each zone at 17:00 JST (0800 GMT).

BOJ board member Yutaka Harada, a vocal advocate of aggressive monetary easing, said on Thursday the central bank had no reason to wind back its ultra-easy policy as inflation remained well below its 2 percent target.