Sentiment in the Japanese government bond market improved sharply after Standard and Poor's mass downgrades of eurozone countries rekindled worries about Europe's debt crisis, a weekly Reuters survey of major market players showed on Monday. The survey's JGB bull-bear diffusion index, calculated by subtracting the number of bearish market players from the number of bullish players, rose to minus 3 from last week's minus 38, which was the lowest reading since early July.
The 10-year JGB yield fell to a fresh 14-month low of 0.935 percent on Monday. The online survey of 191 market players from major institutions had 57 responses, a response rate of 29.8 percent. It was conducted from Friday to 8:00 am on Monday (2300 GMT on Sunday). The median forecast of market players for the 10-year JGB yield at the end of the week was 0.950 percent.