Bond Purchases: Points and Interest Rates

bond purchases: On Thursday, the key market gauge rose 38.55 points. ; The Topix, including all first-section issues, ended down 4.70 points, or 0.29 percent, at 1,593.54, after gaining 6.24 points the previous day, according to The Japan Times. Selling outpaced buying as the dollar weakened against the yen in response to a plunge in U.S. long-term interest rates, brokers said. The benchmark Nikkei 225 average fell 121.70 points, or 0.63 percent, to close at 19,274.82. The key 10-year U.S. Treasury yield took a blow partly from long-term interest rate falls in Europe prompted by European Central Bank President Mario Draghi's remarks after the ECB's policy-setting meeting suggesting that the bank will next month start discussing tapering of its bond purchases, market sources said. Before sinking deeper in negative territory around midafternoon, stocks did not drop as much as expected despite the negative effects from the yen's rise and U.S. equities' overnight weakness, said Yutaka Miura, senior technical analyst at Mizuho Securities Co. The Tokyo market accelerated its downswing in the afternoon, dragged further down by the dollar's fall below 108. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.