TOKYO: Japan’s 10-year government bond yield inched down on Wednesday, as the Bank of Japan (BOJ) defied expectations that the central bank could reduce the offer amounts at its regular bond-buying operation.

In its first operation in the new financial year, the BOJ maintained the amount from the previous offer.

The BOJ said last month it would scale back the maximum limit of its purchases of JGBs in the April-June quarter as it ended its radical stimulus policies of negative interest rates and yield curve control (YCC).

Japan’s 10-year bond yield hits 3-month high amid BOJ policy shift bets

“The BOJ kept the amounts unchanged, which is a factor for investors to buy the bonds,” said Katsutoshi Inadome, a senior strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Asset Management.

“The yields could have risen today to track overnight US Treasury yields higher.” The 10-year JGB yield inched down 0.5 basis point (bp) to 0.76% as of 0540 GMT.

The five-year yield fell 1.5 bp to 0.355% and the two-year JGB yield fell 0.5 bp to 0.19%.

US Treasury yields rose to multi-month highs overnight, as a recent run of solid economic data reinforced expectations that the Federal Reserve could delay cutting interest rates to July or later.

On Wednesday the BOJ offered to buy 375 billion yen of 1-3 year JGBs, the same amount as its previous offers in March.

It also kept the amounts intact for bonds with maturities from 3 to 25 years.

The 20-year JGB yield fell 1 bp to 1.53%.

The 30-year JGB yield was down 1 bp to 1.84%.