CREDIT : Bond Prices Rise in Light Trading

NEW YORK — Bond prices rose in light trading Friday, following through on recent gains, analysts said.

The Treasury’s bellwether 30-year issue rose 1/2 point, or $5 for each $1,000 of face value, after having climbed $7.50 on Thursday.

Its yield, which moves inversely to its price, slipped to 8.65% from 8.69% in the previous session.

“To me, it’s bullish sentiment that’s pushing the market higher,” said Ron Talley, an economist at Mellon Bank in Pittsburgh.

Some analysts said the market was benefitting from a report that the Bank of Japan was considering a large increase in its buying of some Treasury issues, particularly 10-year and 30-year bonds.

But Tally said he did not think that report was that important, “because any purchases they might make would be small in the great scheme of things.”

Instead, he said he thought the market was coasting on the positive aftermath of the gains it made over the past week, beginning with the lower-than-expected trade figures announced a week ago.

Federal Funs Rate Unchanged

In the secondary market for Treasury bonds, prices of short-term governments rose 3/32 point; intermediate maturities rose 9/32 point, and long-term issues were up 3/8 point, according to the financial information service Telerate.

The movement of a point is equivalent to a change of $10 in the price of a bond with a $1,000 face value.

The Merrill Lynch daily Treasury index, which measures price movements on all outstanding Treasury issues with maturities of a year or longer, rose 0.21 to 112.18. The Shearson Lehman daily Treasury bond index, which makes a similar measurement, rose 2.55 to 1,173.46.

In corporate trading, industrials were up point and utilities rose 3/8 point in light trading.

Yields on three-month Treasury bills fell 2 basis points to 5.82%. Six-month bills fell 3 basis points at 6.19% and one-year bills were unchanged at 6.38%. A basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point.

The federal funds rate, the interest on overnight loans between banks, traded at 6.50%, unchanged from Thursday.