TOKYO, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Japan's 10-year government bond (JGB) yield fell on Thursday after the market yield witnessed a moderately firm outcome of an auction for the bonds with the same maturity.
The 10-year JGB yield eased from an earlier high of 0.745% and was last seen at 0.695%, its lowest since Jan. 24.
"Outcome of the auction was not good, just safe. But it came after a series of weak auctions and execrations for the outcome were widely divided, so investors were relieved" said Ataru Okumura, senior strategist at SMBC Nikko Securities.
The auction received bids worth 3.65 times the amount sold, higher than 2.9 times at the previous auction for the 10-year bonds.
The auction's tail, or the gap between the lowest and average price, narrowed to 0.07 point from the previous 0.12 point.
Separately, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) announced that it bought 5.95 trillion yen ($40.52 billion) of JGBs in January, the lowest since June last year.
The amount was a stark contrast with its purchase of JGBs worth 23.7 trillion yen last January, when the central bank conducted aggressive bond buying.
The BOJ had in December 2022 raised its cap for the 10-year JGB yield, which fuelled a sell-off as speculation of further change of the cap grew.
On Thursday, yields also fell across the curve, with the two-year JGB yield falling 1 bp to 0.080% and the five-year yield slipping 1 bp to 0.295%.
The 20-year yield fell 0.5 bp to 1.530%. The 30-year yield fell 1 bp to 1.815%.
The 40-year yield fell 0.5 bp to 2.055%. ($1 = 146.8300 yen) (Reporting by Junko Fujita; Editing by Varun H K)
