On Monday, September 5, the European Central Bank (ECB) announced its weekly Main Refinancing Operation (MRO). This attracted bids for €226.3 billion from euro area eligible counterparties, with the ECB allotting €160 billion, or 70.7 per cent of the total amount bid for.

The marginal rate, which is the rate at which the total tender allotment is exhausted, was set by the ECB at 4.39 per cent, unchanged from the marginal rate resulting from the MRO of the previous week.

In the domestic primary market for Treasury bills, the Treasury invited tenders for 91-day bills maturing on December 5. Bids for €112.08 million were submitted, with the Treasury accepting €53.4 million. Since €39.79 million worth of bills matured during the week, the outstanding balance of Treasury bills increased by €13.61 million to €426.1 million.

The yield resulting from the auction was 4.794 per cent, 6.7 basis points lower than that on bills with a similar tenor issued on August 22. The latest yield represented a bid price of 98.8027 per 100 nominal.

Today the Treasury will invite tenders for 182-day bills maturing on March 20, 2009, and the following week it will invite tenders for 182-day bills maturing on March 27, 2009.

Treasury bill trading on the Malta Stock Exchange amounted to €773,000 with the bulk of the trades conducted by the bank. Off-Exchange transactions amounted to €360,000.