Bank Of Japan leaves record Y4.5 trillion net money mart surplus

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Sunday December 26, 8:25 pm Eastern Time

BOJ leaves record Y4.5 trln net money mart surplus

TOKYO, Dec 27 (Reuters) - The Bank of Japan (BOJ) said it left the money market with an estimated surplus of 4.5 trillion yen via its regular 0020 GMT operations on Monday, the largest net surplus ever.

The central bank raised the surplus to a record level in order to prevent market concerns about the millennium computer bug from putting upward pressure on the key unsecured overnight call rate, a BOJ official in charge of money market operations told Reuters.

The official said Y2K-related concerns were spurring banks to boost cash on hand and excess reserves, which could fuel upward pressure on the overnight rate.

At its 0020 GMT money market operation, the BOJ offered to sell 300 billion yen in bills via auction, leaving the market with an estimated surplus of 4.5 trillion yen, up sharply from 2.4 trillion yen on Friday.

The BOJ has been leaving larger surpluses than its usual 1.0 trillion yen in the money market since last Wednesday, when it left a net surplus of 1.5 trillion yen.

The key overnight call rate was mainly traded at 0.02 percent after the BOJ officials' comments, steady with the previous session's weighted average rate, traders said.

-- (M@rket.trends), December 27, 1999


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