On Monday, August 17, the European Central Bank announced its weekly main refinancing operation (MRO). The auction was conducted on Tuesday, August 18, and attracted bids from euro area eligible counterparties of €69.56 billion, €0.11 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, August 19, 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 $0.13 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 November 19. Bids of €28.00 million were submitted, with the Treasury accepting €10.00 million. Since €11 million worth of bills matured during the week, the outstanding balance of Treasury bills decreased by €1 million, to stand at €245.05 million.
The yield from the 90-day bill auction was -0.038 per cent, up by 1.0 basis point from bids with a similar tenor issued on August 14, representing a bid price of 100.0095 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 bills and 181-day bills maturing on November 26, 2015, and February 25, 2016, respectively.