On Monday, March 7, the European Central Bank (ECB) announced its weekly Main Refinancing Operation (MRO). The auction was conducted on Tuesday, March 8, and attracted bids from euro area eligible counterparties of €111.33 billion, €13.11 billion lower than the amount bid for in the previous week. The bid amount was allotted in full at a fixed rate equivalent to the prevailing main refinancing rate of one per cent, in accordance with current ECB policy.

On Tuesday, March 8, the ECB conducted a Special Term Refinancing Operation (STRO) with a maturity of 35 days. This attracted bids of €82.50 billion, which were allotted in full at a fixed rate equivalent to the prevailing main refinancing rate of one per cent, also in accordance with current ECB policy.

Also, on Tuesday, March 8, the ECB conducted an auction for a seven-day fixed-term deposit intended to absorb €77.50 billion. This operation was designed to sterilise the effect of purchases made under the Securities Markets Programme and settled by the previous Friday, March 4. The auction was carried out at a variable rate, with euro area eligible counterparties allowed to place up to two bids at a maximum rate of one per cent. It attracted bids amounting to €95.58 billion, with the ECB allotting €77.50 billion or 81.08 per cent of the amount bid for. The marginal rate on the auction was set at 0.90 per cent, with the weighted average rate at 0.83 per cent.

On the same day, the last day of the reserve deposit maintenance period, the ECB conducted an overnight Fine-tuning Liquidity Absorbing Operation at a variable rate, with counterparties allowed to place up to two bids at a maximum of one per cent.

The operation attracted bids of €96.57 billion, with the ECB accepting €95.81 billion or 99.21 per cent of the amount bid for. The marginal rate on the operation was set at 0.80 per cent, while the weighted average allotment rate was 0.79 per cent. On Wednesday, March 9, the ECB conducted a seven-day US dollar funding operation through collateralised lending in conjunction with the US Federal Reserve.

This operation was carried out at a fixed rate of 1.15 per cent and no bids were placed by euro area eligible counterparties.

In the domestic primary market for Treasury Bills, the Treasury invited tenders for 91-day bills maturing on June 10. Bids of €56.25 million were submitted for the 91-day bills, with the Treasury accepting only €5.25 million. Since €19.58 million worth of bills matured during the week, the outstanding balance of Treasury Bills decreased by €14.33 million, to stand at €400.67 million.

The yield from the 91-day bill auction was 1.049 per cent, i.e. 4.2 basis points higher than on bills with a similar tenor issued on March 4, representing a bid price of 99.7355 per 100 nominal.

During the week, Treasury Bill trading on the Malta Stock Exchange amounted to €3 million and was conducted on the off-exchange system by the Central Bank of Malta in its role as market-maker.

Today, the Treasury will invite tenders for 91-day bills maturing on June 17 and 182-day bills maturing on September 16.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.