BOJ's REITs purchase to exceed previous estimate: paper

TOKYO (Reuters) - The Bank of Japan will likely expand its purchase of Japanese real estate investment trusts (J-REITs) beyond its buying scheme announced earlier this year as part of the central bank's hyper easing steps, the Nikkei business daily said on Saturday.

The BOJ said in April that it would boost the balance of its J-REITs holding by 30 billion yen ($317.18 million) a year, and forecast 140 billion yen in holding for the end of 2013.

The central bank's aggressive buying, however, has already boosted the balance of its J-REITs holding closer to the 140 billion yen level, triggering a decline in the J-REITs market amid worries that the bank's buying spree will soon lose steam.

The Nikkei said, without citing sources, that the BOJ is now expected to continue purchasing J-REITs so that the balance of the central bank's holding at the end of the year will likely exceed the 140 billion yen mark by up to 10 billion yen.

The Tokyo Stock Market's J-REITs subindex <.TREIT> fell 19 over the past two months.

Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said on Tuesday that it is difficult to boost J-REITs buying within a short term because the J-REITs market itself is not big, but that the bank will closely watch the market and respond flexibly. ($1 = 94.5850 Japanese yen)