imageTOKYO: Japanese government bonds fell on Monday, with the 30-year yield rising to a 4-month high as equities rose and U.S. Treasuries dipped after upbeat U.S. employment data.

The benchmark 10-year JGB yield added 4.5 basis points (bps) to minus 0.055 percent, down from an earlier high of minus 0.045 percent and within sight of last week's high of minus 0.025 percent.

The Nikkei stock index rose to one-week highs, buoyed by gains on Wall Street and the yen's retreat following Friday's stronger-than-expected July U.S. non-farm payrolls report.

U.S. Treasury yields jumped on Friday after the jobs report boosted expectations for another Federal Reserve interest rate hike this year.

September 10-year futures ended down 0.43 point at 151.18 after falling to an intraday low of 151.02 in the morning session.

The 30-year JGB yield rose 3 bps to 0.415 percent after earlier touching 0.420 percent, its highest since early April, ahead of the Ministry of Finance's auction of 800 billion yen ($7.84 billion) of 30-year JGBs on Tuesday.

Last month, Japanese investors bought a record net 5.45 trillion yen ($53.41 billion) of medium- and long-term foreign bonds, eclipsing March's record of 5.20 trillion yen, data released by the finance ministry on Monday showed.

JGB yields had slumped to record lows in July, with the yield on the 20-year JGB briefly turning negative. It has since risen to 0.325 percent on Monday, up 4 bps on the day.

JGBs logged their worst sell-off in more than three years on Tuesday last week, after the Bank of Japan did not include any additional JGB purchases in easing steps it announced on July 29. That raised speculation that the central bank had reached the limits of its JGB buying.

Copyright Reuters, 2016

Comments

Comments are closed.