SINGAPORE, Oct 31 Reuters The yen weakened on Tuesday and languished near a oneyear low against the dollar, after a small step by the Bank of Japan BOJ towards ending years of massive monetary stimulus failed to appease some investors who had expected a bigger move.

At the conclusion of its twoday policy meeting, the BOJ said that it would keep the 10year government bond yield around 0 set under its yield curve control YCC, but redefined 1.0 as a loose upper bound rather than a rigid cap.

It also removed a pledge to defend the level with offers to buy unlimited amount of bonds.

Some analysts touted the move as a defacto abolishment of the BOJ39;s controversial YCC regime, but the yen still slid roughly 0.8 past the 150 per dollar threshold to hit an intraday low of 150.26 .

The euro similarly jumped about 0.7 to 159.30 yen , while sterling gained 0.63 to 182.44 yen,

The 1 is no longer a strict cap and so that means they will allow for JGB yields to rise above 1. To some extent, this is as good as quietly allowing YCC to fade in the background, said Christopher Wong, a currency strategist at OCBC.

The move in the yen also reflected expectations of a tweak that had already been priced in, following a Nikkei report on Monday that said the BOJ could potentially allow 10year JGB yields to rise above 1.

I think the market already fully priced in the decision today with the Nikkei article, said Norihiro Yamaguchi, senior Japan economist at Oxford Economics. Some seem…