LONDON, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Euro zone bond yields crept up on Thursday but held below this week’s highs, as a degree of calm returned to a market that has been gripped in the past week by concern that central banks are running out of ammunition to bolster economic growth.

Upcoming supply from France and Spain, which are scheduled to sell more than 10 billion euros of bonds later in the session, put some upward pressure on yields.

Still, trade in regional government bond markets was relatively stable following a hefty sell-off triggered by a European Central Bank meeting a week ago that left monetary policy unchanged -- disappointing many bond investors.

Germany’s benchmark 10-year Bund yield was 1 basis point higher at 0.04 percent. On Wednesday it hit its highest level since the results of Britain’s referendum on European Union membership in June, before closing lower and ending the longest run of daily rises since late last year.

Other euro zone bond yields 1-3 bps higher.

“The set-back on the back of the ECB meeting was significant,” said Patrick Jacq, European rate strategist at BNP Paribas. “At these levels, the set-back is close to an end and the question is do we go back to a bullish mode?”

Jacq added that ahead of U.S. Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan meetings next week, bonds market sentiment remained vulnerable.

In addition to inaction at last week’s ECB meeting, bond yields have faced upward pressure from a growing worries about the ability of major central banks to stimulate growth.

Speculation that the Bank of Japan could reduce buying of long-dated bonds for its quantitative easing programme, for instance, has triggered a sharp steeping of the Japanese government bond (JGB) yield curve.

JGB yields fell on Thursday, helping support sentiment in broader fixed income markets. U.S. Treasury yields have also pulled back from three-month peaks.

“After big sell-offs on Friday and Tuesday, bonds found their feet on Monday and did even better on Wednesday,” Societe Generale analysts said in a note. “While this is encouraging, we stay defensive for now.”

The Bank of England meanwhile is expected to say on Thursday that it will still probably cut interest rates to a fraction above zero later this year, despite signs it overestimated the initial shock to Britain’s economy from June’s Brexit vote. (Reporting by Dhara Ranasinghe; Editing by Toby Chopra)