TOKYO: Japanese government bond (JGB) prices were little changed on Friday as cautious investors hoped for a thaw in U.S.-China trade friction at the G20 summit this weekend.

There was also caution ahead of the Bank of Japan's (BOJ) monthly bond operation guideline announcement scheduled later in the day as the central bank may signal it would trim JGB purchases slightly in December.

Investors are awaiting a meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump at the G20 summit in Argentina, where both the leaders are expected to discuss the mounting trade spat.

Ten-year JGB futures closed 0.04 point lower at 151.17, with a trading volume of 42,099 lots. The benchmark futures hit a 14-month high of 151.31 earlier in the session.

Yields on the benchmark cash 10-year JGB were flat at 0.080 percent.

The two-year JGB yield and five-year JGB yield  advanced half a basis point each, to minus 0.135 percent and minus 0.105 percent, respectively.

On the longer end of the yield curve, the 20-year JGB yield  shed half a basis point to 0.585 percent.

In its buying operations on Friday, the BOJ offered to purchase 450 billion yen ($3.97 billion) of five- to 10-year JGBs and 180 billion yen of 10- to 25-year bonds, as well as 50 billion yen of 25-year or longer bonds, consistent with its previous purchase amounts for those zones.

Copyright Reuters, 2018

Comments

Comments are closed.