Fed bought $18 bln net in agency MBS in latest week

NEW YORK Oct 29 (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve bought $18 billion net of agency mortgage-backed securities in the latest week, the New York Fed said on its website on Thursday.

That was down slightly from the previous week's net purchases of $18.1 billion.

The purchases brought the U.S. central bank's purchase of mortgage bonds guaranteed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Bank system to roughly $977 billion since January.

The Fed said it bought $21.906 billion gross of agency MBS from Oct. 22 through Oct. 28. At the same time, it sold $3.906 billion in mortgage securities.

The Fed aims to buy $1.25 trillion of agency MBS in a bid to bring down mortgage rates and to stimulate the battered housing sector and the overall economy.

(For more details on the purchases, please click on: here) (Reporting by Julie Haviv; Editing by Dan Grebler)