TOKYO, Aug 2 (Reuters) – Japanese government bonds were narrowly mixed at the start of a new month on Monday, with benchmark 10-year bonds untraded by early afternoon as investors looked to an auction the following day.<\/p>\n
While the benchmark 10-year JGBs were untraded , the 10-year JGB futures price dipped 0.02 point to 152.28 and the yield on the 20-year JGBs fell 0.5 basis point to 0.630%.<\/p>\n
Benchmarks for other major maturities were also untraded ahead of Tuesday\u2019s auction of 2.6 trillion yen 10-year JGBs.<\/p>\n
The Bank of Japan\u2019s bond buying plan for August, announced on Friday, showed its first buying in 10-year JGBs will be on Aug 12.<\/p>\n
That is the latest date for the BOJ\u2019s buying in that maturity since the BOJ began its massive easing in 2013, said Takenobu Nakashima, chief rates strategist at Nomura.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy refraining from buying for a long period after the auction, the BOJ may be trying to raise the market\u2019s volatility.\u201d Nakashima said.<\/p>\n
Since mid-July, the 10-year yield has been stuck in a narrow range of 1.5 basis points.<\/p>\n