TOKYO, Jan 19 (Reuters) - The Japanese government bond (JGB) yield curve steepened on Friday as investors sold super long-dated bonds after the weak outcome of a series of auctions hurt sentiment.
The 30-year JGB yield jumped 5 basis points (bps) to 1.765% and the 20-year JGB yield rose 3.5 bps to 1.465%.
The 40-year JGB yield jumped 7.5 bps to 2.035%.
"Market players witnessed weak demand at a series of auctions from the beginning of this month. Despite that, the yields were hovering low," said Takeshi Ishida, strategist at Resona Holdings.
The yields touched multi-month lows earlier this week, tracking U.S. Treasury peers lower, with the two-year yield dropping below zero for the first time since July.
"The yields have rebounded from their lows," Ishida said.
A 20-year bond auction held in the previous session witnessed a weak outcome. That followed a similar outcome of the 10-, 30- and 5-year auctions held this month.
The Bank of Japan on Friday kept the offer amounts for its regular bond buying operations unchanged from the previous offers, including that for the bonds with maturities beyond 25 years.
The central bank last month said it would cut the frequency of offers for bonds with maturities longer than 10 years in the next three months, meaning the BOJ would buy fewer longer-dated bonds in the near future.
Investors also braced for a 40-year bond auction scheduled next week.
The 10-year JGB yield rose 1.5 bps to 0.665%.
The five-year yield rose 0.5 bp to 0.250%.
The two-year JGB yield fell 0.5 bp to 0.025%. (Reporting by Junko Fujita; Editing by Sohini Goswami)
