On Monday, June 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 €89.66 billion, €0.74 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, June 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 $0.12 billion, which was allotted in full at a fixed rate of 0.64 per cent.
On Thursday, June 18, the ECB conducted the fourth Targeted Longer Term Refinancing Operation, as announced in the press release of Thursday, June 5, 2014.
This operation attracted bids of €73.79 billion, which was allotted in full at a fixed rate of 0.05 per cent.
Domestic Treasury bill market
In the domestic primary market for Treasury bills, the Treasury invited tenders for 91- day and 181-day bills maturing on September 18 and December 17, respectively. Bids of €3 million were submitted for the 91-day bills, with the Treasury accepting €2 million, while bids of €13 million were submitted for the 181-day bills, with the Treasury accepting €10 million. Since €2 million worth of bills matured during the week, the outstanding balance of Treasury bills increased by €10 million, to stand at €214.05 million.
The yield from the 91-day bill auction was 0.030 per cent, up by 3.5 basis points from bids with a similar tenor issued on June 12, 2015, representing a bid price of 99.9924 per 100 nominal. The yield from the 181-day bill auction was 0.00 per cent, unchanged from bids with a similar tenor issued on May 29, 2015, representing a bid price of 100 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 September 25.