On Monday, September 7, the European Central Bank announced its weekly main refinancing operation (MRO). The auction was conducted the following day and attracted bids from euro area eligible counterparties of €70.91 billion, €0.13 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 9, 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 $0.14 billion, which was allotted in full at a fixed rate of 0.66 per cent.
Domestic Treasury bill market
In the domestic primary market for Treasury bills, the Treasury invited tenders for 90-day bills maturing on December 10. Bids of €18 million were submitted, with the Treasury accepting all bids. Since €15 million worth of bills matured during the week, the outstanding balance of Treasury bills increased by €3 million, to stand at €240.05 million.
The yield from the 90-day bill auction was 0.017 per cent, down by 1.3 basis points from bids with a similar tenor issued on September 4, representing a bid price of 99.9958 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 272-day bills maturing on December 17, 2015, and June 16, 2016, respectively.