On Monday, August 18, the European Central Bank (ECB) announced its weekly main refinancing operation (MRO). The auction was conducted on Tuesday, August 19, and attracted bids from euro area eligible counterparties of €107.61 billion, €0.59 billion lower than the bid amount of the previous week. The amount was allotted in full at a fixed rate equivalent to the prevailing MRO rate of 0.15 per cent, in accordance with current ECB policy.

On Wednesday, August 20, the ECB conducted a seven-day US dollar funding operation through collateralised lending in conjunction with the US Federal Reserve. This operation attracted one bid of $0.08 billion, which was allotted in full at a fixed rate of 0.59 per cent.

Domestic Treasury bill market

In the domestic primary market for Treasury bills, the Treasury invited tenders for 91-day bills and for 182-day bills maturing on November 21, 2014, and February 20, 2015, respectively. Bids of €27 million were submitted for the 91-day bills, with the Treasury accepting €10 million, while bids of €40.00 million were submitted for the 182-day bills, with the Treasury accepting €2.00 million. Since €14.00 million worth of bills matured during the week, the outstanding balance of Treasury bills decreased by €2 million, to stand at €356.07 million.

The yield from the 91-day bill auction was 0.240 per cent, i.e. 1.7 basis points lower than on bills with a similar tenor issued on August 14, representing a bid price of 99.9394 per 100 nominal.

The yield from the 182-day bill auction was 0.290 per cent, i.e. 3.2 basis points lower than on bills with a similar tenor issued on August 8, representing a bid price of 99.8536 per 100 nominal.

During the week under review, there was no trading on the Malta Stock Exchange.

Today, the Treasury will invite tenders for 91-day bills maturing on November 28.

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