February 19, 1999
| | |
| ||
| February 19, 1999 | atimes.com | |
| ||
| Japan Economy Japan bond yield plunges on MOF decision to resume buying TOKYO - The yield on the benchmark No. 203 10-year Japanese government bond plunged Tuesday, briefly touching 1.860 percent in inter-dealer trading, down 27.5 basis points from the previous day. The decline came on buying prompted by a Finance Ministry Trust Fund Bureau decision earlier in the day to resume purchases of already-issued bonds, market observers said. Market participants were doubtful the bureau's buying will stem the rise in long-term interest rates for long, however.Institutional investors were thus cautious about buying 20-year government bonds, which tend to see volatile price movement, they noted. The gap between the yields of the No. 203 10-year bond and the No. 41 20-year bond has been widening since early this year, reaching 127.2 basis points Tuesday. ''Today's decline in bond yields will likely be temporary,'' said one official at a bank securities subsidiary. An official at Asahi Mutual Life Insurance Co. expressed caution about buying 20-year bonds. ''It's difficult to buy bonds with volatile price movement toward the March-end book closing." Outright bond buying by the Trust Fund Bureau ''is not likely to bring improvement in the supply-demand balance for 20-year bonds,'' said an official at Sumitomo Marine & Fire Insurance Co., who noted that the bureau's outright purchases through December did not include 20-year bonds. (Asia Pulse/Nikkei) | |||||||||
 |
|
Front | China | Southeast Asia | Japan | Koreas | India/Pakistan | Central Asia/Russia | Oceania Business Briefs | Global Economy | Asian Crisis | Media/IT | Editorials | Letters | Search/Archive |
back to the top ©1999 Asia Times Online Co., Ltd. |
