Yields on 10-year JGBs fall as BOJ's Kuroda brushes off widening yield band

TOKYO: Yields on benchmark 10-year Japanese government bonds (JGBs) fell on Friday as Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda brushed off the need to widen an implicit band set for its long-term interest-rate target at a policy review in March.

The BOJ caps the 10-year bond yield around zero under a policy dubbed yield curve control (YCC), and currently allows the benchmark yield to move 40 basis points around its 0% target.

Markets have been rife with speculation the BOJ would widen that band and allow yields to move higher at a policy review meeting. The 10-year JGB yield fell three basis points to 0.105%, while the 20-year JGB yield fell 2.5 basis points to 0.490%.

The five-year yield fell 1.5 basis points to minus 0.085%.

The 30-year JGB yield rose 2.5 basis points to 0.735%.

The two-year JGB yield rose 0.5 basis point to minus 0.120%.

Benchmark 10-year JGB futures rose 0.29 point to 151.29, with a trading volume of 27,281 lots.