TOKYO, May 13 (Reuters) - The Bank of Japan on Monday sent a hawkish signal to markets on Monday by cutting the amount of Japanese government bonds it offered to buy in a regular purchase operation.
The central bank reduced the offer amount for bonds with 5-10 years left to maturity to 425 billion yen ($2.73 billion) from 475 billion yen at the previous operation on April 24.
The amount was still within the 400-550 billion yen range the BOJ previously announced.
Minutes from the BOJ's last policy meeting in April, released on Thursday, had revealed an overwhelmingly hawkish shift among board members, signalling the potential for steady interest rate rises following the first hike since 2007 at the March meeting.
The 10-year JGB yield rose 2.5 basis points (bps) to 0.93%.
The two-year yield added 0.5 bp to 0.32%, a level not seen since July 2009.
The moves were relatively muted though, and yields had already been under upward pressure following an advance in U.S. yields overnight.
"The hawkish summary of opinions last week meant people were already cautious about the risks of a reduction in purchases," which explains why the market took the unannounced change in stride, said Shoki Omori, chief Japan desk strategist at Mizuho Securities.
($1 = 155.6200 yen) (Reporting by Kevin Buckland; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Shri Navaratnam)
