JGBs trade higher on BoJ’s strong daily market operations

Japanese bonds traded firmer Wednesday following solid daily market operations from the Bank of Japan (BoJ). In addition, continues dovish comments from Governor Kuroda kept the bond yields under control.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves inversely to its price, fell nearly 1 basis point to 0.024 percent, the yield on long-term 40-year also slid 1 basis point to 0.999 percent and the yield on short-term 2-year declined 1-1/2 basis points to -0.201 percent by 03:40 GMT.

The finance ministry's liquidity-enhancing auction, at which it sold 300 billion yen (USD2.63 billion) of one- to five-year JGBs, attracted strong demand ahead of this week's debt-purchasing operations by the Bank of Japan, at which market participants can sell bonds to the central bank. The auction's bid-to-cover ratio, a gauge of demand, rose to 6.6 versus 4.05 at the previous sale, Reuters reported.

On Monday, BoJ Governor Kuroda said that there is still some time to achieve the 2 percent inflation goal and he expects the economy to steadily move towards it. He added that the central bank will proceed with powerful monetary easing under the YCC approach. Governor said there is no need to review the CB's ETF purchases as of now; it might do so in the future but as of now it is buying ETF as part of the process to achieve 2 percent inflation. Added that the bond-buying programme does not aim to push higher stock prices or target any specific stock level.

Meanwhile, Japan’s Nikkei 225 traded 0.49 percent at 22,847.00 by 03:45, while at 03:00GMT, the FxWirePro's Hourly Yen Strength Index remained slightly bearish at 97.19 (a reading above +75 indicates a bullish trend, while that below -75 a bearish trend). For more details, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex

FxWirePro launches Absolute Return Managed Program. For more details, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/invest