TOKYO:Japanese government bond prices sagged on Monday, following in the footsteps of US bonds last week, though worries about lack of a breakthrough in Greece's debt swap deal kept many investors on hold.
US bond yields rose on Friday on hopes that Greece and its creditors would soon reach agreement on the country's debt restructuring. But so far they have failed to clinch a deal ahead, with a euro zone finance ministers' meeting looming on Monday.
"Now the market is looking to Greece. But it's not as if the talks have broken down. It's just that they don't have a deal yet," said Tadashi Matsukawa, a bond investment manager at PineBridge Investments.
With market players cautiously optimistic about Greece's debt deals, benchmark 10-year JGB futures fell 0.08 point to 142.30, struggling to cling to the Ichimoku cloud top at 142.31.
A close below that level could open the way for a test of the Dec. 28 low of 142.13, a scenario that is probable if yields on Italian and other euro zone government debt keep falling, some market players said.
The 10-year cash JGB yield rose 1.0 basis point to 0.990 percent, its highest in nearly three weeks, though many market players expect bargain-hunting at the 1 percent mark.
The five-year JGB yield rose 0.5 basis point to 0.345 percent while the 20-year bond yield held flat at 1.760 percent.
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