Japanese government bonds rallied on Friday as some investors covered short positions, knocking benchmark yields off a two-month high hit in the previous session. The 10-year yield tumbled 3 basis points to 0.830 percent, but was still poised to end the week higher than its close a week ago at 0.795 percent.
"Given the summer lull, Treasuries, Bunds and JGBs have come to threshold levels considering recent highs in yields, and people are being cautious, to see if yields are going to continue to head higher or bounce back to the downside," said Maki Shimizu, senior strategist at Citigroup Global Markets Japan. Ten-year JGB futures closed up 0.32 point at 143.59 after ending morning trade up just 0.05 point. Futures rebounded from their biggest one-day fall in five months suffered a day before.
Futures trading volume was healthy, with 35,417 contracts changing hands, down from Thursday's 47,163 but topping last week's average of 31,510. Yields on 20-year debt, which also rose to two-month highs on Thursday, slipped 3.5 basis points to 1.650 percent as that sector outperformed, while those on 30-year bonds lost 3 basis points to 1.850 percent.
Comments
Comments are closed.