TOKYO: Yields on benchmark Japanese government bonds rose on Friday, tracking weakness in US Treasuries, while some market players were disappointed the Bank of Japan trimmed the size of its purchase of five to 10-year maturities in its operations.
The 10-year yield added 1.5 basis points to 0.760 percent, moving further away from a 3-1/2-month low touched on Wednesday.
The 10-year US Treasury yield last stood near 2.904 percent, having set a two-year high of 2.936 percent on Thursday.
US Treasury yields had pushed higher after minutes of the Federal Reserve's July meeting on Wednesday did little to change market expectations that the Fed could start tapering its bond-buying programme as early as next month.
"Today's BOJ action actually reduces the purchase of five to 10-year sectors from 450 billion yen to 400 billion yen. That's quite negative psychologically," said Tadashi Matsukawa, head of Japan fixed income at PineBridge Investments.
The BoJ on Friday offered to buy a total of 1 trillion yen ($10.1 billion) of JGBs with residual maturities ranging from one to 10-years as part of its bond-buying operations to revive the world's third-largest economy. It included 400 billion yen of JGBs maturing in five to 10 years, down from previous operations of 450 billion yen.
Ten-year JGB futures were down 0.13 point at 143.80, breaking below the 20-day moving average of 143.84.
The five-year yield gained 1 basis point to 0.300 percent, while the superlong sectors were not quoted.
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