South Korean government bonds fell but recouped much of their earlier losses on Friday, with investors bracing for bond auctions on Monday while digesting the central banks revised gross domestic product projections. The finance ministry will sell up to 2.83 trillion won ($2.15 billion) in 5-year treasury bonds while the central bank plans to issue 6 trillion won in monetary stabilisation bonds on Monday.
"Supply jitters are still lingering but much of them seem to have been factored in," said Moon Byung-sik, a fixed-income analyst at Daishin Securities. The debt market suffered a blow early in the day after the central bank said before the market opening that the economy managed to avert a recession in the first quarter thanks to pump-priming and rate cuts, although it predicted a 2.4 percent contraction for the entire year.
"Although many people are beginning to say the economy is at a bottom, bond investors seem to be betting that the expected recovery would come very slowly and the central bank would not hike rates suddenly," Daishins Moon said. The yield on benchmark 5-year treasury bonds rose 2 basis points to 4.60 percent and the yield on 3-year treasury bonds remained steady at Thursdays close of 3.88 percent. June treasury bond futures ended up 1 tick at 110.27 after falling as much as 12 ticks earlier.
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