Japanese government bond prices closed higher for the second straight trading day on the back of a rise in US Treasury prices overnight and losses in stock prices here, dealers said. The yield on the benchmark No 273 10-year bond, which carries a 1.4 pct coupon, was at 1.500 pct, after trading in a range of 1.500-1.535 pct. Yesterday, it touched a near-one-year high of 1.585 pct before closing at 1.555 pct. The yield on the lead 20-year debt eased to 2.095 pct from 2.155 pct at the close yesterday, and the yield on the bellwether five-year bond was at 0.805 pct, against 0.850 pct previously. Bond prices move inversely to yields. The 10-year bond futures contract closed at 137.45 yen, up from 136.84 yesterday, off a high of 137.58 yen. "Speculators, including overseas funds, scrambled to buy back debt paper as stock prices fell sharply today," said Kenji Arata, senior economist at Informa Global Markets (Japan). On the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the blue-chip Nikkei 225 Stock Average ended the day down 1.7 pct at 13,129.49. "Going forward, if the Nikkei index continues to decline below 13,000 points, this could push the yield [on the lead 10-year JGB] downward below 1.500 pct," Arata said. Mizuho Securities chief market economist Yasunari Ueno said the firmer tone in the US government debt market provided a spur to JGB prices. "Investors realized the yield [on the lead 10-year JGB] had risen too rapidly yesterday, so they moved to buy back paper," said Ueno. Overnight, the yield on the lead US 10-year Treasury notes rose to 4.48 pct from 4.5 pct at the previous close.