On Monday, July 6, the European Central Bank announced its weekly main refinancing operation (MRO).
The auction was conducted on Tuesday, July 7, and attracted bids from euro area eligible counterparties of €74.46 billion, €1.95 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, July 8, the ECB conducted a seven-day US dollar funding operation through collateralised lending in conjunction with the US Federal Reserve. This operation attracted bids of $0.31 billion, which was allotted in full at a fixed rate of 0.63 per cent.
Domestic Treasury bill market
In the domestic primary market for Treasury bills, the Treasury invited tenders for 90-day bills maturing on October 8. Bids of €38 million were submitted, with the Treasury accepting €25 million. Since no bills matured during the week, the outstanding balance of Treasury bills increased by €25.00 million, to stand at €247.55 million.
The yield from the 90-day bill auction was -0.025 per cent, down by 2.2 basis points from bids with a similar tenor issued on July 3, 2015, representing a bid price of 100.0063 per 100 nominal.
During the week under review, there was no trading on the Malta Stock Exchange.
Today, the Treasury will invite tenders for 90-day and 272-day bills maturing on October 15, 2015, and April 14, 2016.