JGBs little changed despite PM Abe’s tumultuous snap election win

The Japanese government bonds remained little changed at the start of the trading week Monday even as the country’s snap elections held over the weekend yielded results as per market expectations, with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe retaining his outright majority to form a government in the Lower House.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves inversely to its price, traded flat at 0.07 percent, the yield on long-term 30-year hovered around 0.89 percent and the yield on short-term 2-year too remained steady at -0.13 percent by 04:00 GMT.

Japanese media said Monday that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party and a small coalition partner had together secured at least 312 seats in the 465-seat lower house of parliament, passing the 310-barrier for a two-thirds majority. Four seats remained undecided.

The victory boosts Abe's chances of winning another three-year term next September as leader of the Liberal Democratic Party. That could extend his premiership to 2021, giving him more time to try to win a reluctant public over to his long-time goal of revising Japan's pacifist constitution.

The Constitutional Democratic Party, set up only about two weeks ago by former chief cabinet secretary Yukio Edano after its predecessor split up, had 54 seats. Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike’s upstart Party of Hope, which briefly jumped in opinion polls last month, won 49 seats.

Meanwhile, Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 1.29 percent to 21,734.00, while at 04:00GMT, the FxWirePro's Hourly Yen Strength Index remained neutral at -19.22 (a reading above +75 indicates a bullish trend, while that below -75 a bearish trend). For more details, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex

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