On Monday, September 15, the European Central Bank (ECB) announced its weekly main refinancing operation (MRO). The auction was conducted the following day and attracted bids from euro area eligible counterparties of €105.69 billion, €5.01 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 0.05 per cent, in accordance with current ECB policy.

On Wednesday, September 17, 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 $0.02 billion, which was allotted in full at a fixed rate of 0.59 per cent.

Furthermore, on Thursday, September 18, the ECB conducted the first Targeted Longer Term Refinancing Operation, as announced in the press release of Thursday, June 5. This operation attracted bids of €82.60 billion, which was allotted in full at a fixed rate of 0.15 per cent.

Domestic Treasury bill market

In the domestic primary market for Treasury bills, the Treasury invited tenders for 91-day bills maturing on December 19. Bids of €73.50 million were submitted, with the Treasury accepting €10 million. Since €26.50 million worth of bills matured during the week, the outstanding balance of Treasury bills decreased by €16.50 million, to stand at €317.07 million.

The yield from the 91-day bill auction was 0.119 per cent, i.e. 2.7 basis points lower than on bills with a similar tenor issued on September 12, representing a bid price of 99.9699 per 100 nominal.

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

Today the Treasury will invite tenders for 89-day and 182-day bills, maturing on December 24, 2014, and March 27, 2015, respectively.