JGBs mixed in muted trading ahead of BoJ’s June policy meeting minutes; 10-year auction fails to attract demand

The Japanese government bonds remained mixed on Thursday in a muted trading day ahead of the Bank of Japan’s (BoJ) June monetary policy meeting minutes, scheduled to be released today by 23:50GMT. Also, the country’s 10-year bond auction failed to attract investor demand, which led to a further rise in yields.

The yield on Japan’s benchmark 10-year bond, which moves inversely to its price, rose nearly 1 basis point to 0.13 percent, the yield on the long-term 30-year jumped 2 basis points to 0.82 percent while the yield on short-term 2-year fell nearly 1-1/2 basis points to -0.09 percent by 05:00GMT.

Further, the BoJ undertook measures to make its monetary policy framework more flexible, although pledging to keep interest rates low for a long period of time, but said that rates can rise or fall, depending on the economic health of the country.

The noted changes show that Governor Haruhiko Kuroda plans to stick to a radical stimulus programme as of now, but will keep a close eye on how the other economies react to the changes in policies, Reuters reported.

Meanwhile, the Nikkei 225 index slumped over 1 percent to 22,496.00 at 05:10, while at 05:00GMT, the FxWirePro's Hourly JPY Strength Index remained neutral at -28.72 (a reading above +75 indicates a bullish trend, while that below -75 a bearish trend). For more details, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex