Fed bought $10 bln net in agency MBS in latest week

NEW YORK, March 18 (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve bought $10 billion net of agency mortgage-backed securities in the latest week, the New York Fed said on its website on Thursday.

The amount was unchanged from the previous week's net purchases.

The transactions brought the U.S. central bank's purchase of mortgage bonds guaranteed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae to roughly $1.236 trillion since January of 2009.

The Fed said it bought $10.601 billion gross of agency MBS from March 11 through March 17. At the same time, it sold $601 million 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)