On Monday, November 2, the European Central Bank (ECB) announced its weekly main refinancing operation (MRO). The auction was conducted on Tuesday, November 3, and attracted bids from euro area eligible counterparties of €61.47 billion, €6.98 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, November 4, the ECB conducted an eight-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 0.63 per cent.

Domestic Treasury bill market

In the domestic primary market for Treasury bills, the Treasury invited tenders for 273-day bills maturing on August 4, 2016. Bids of €66 million were submitted, with the Treasury accepting €21 million. Since €21 million worth of bills matured during the week, the outstanding balance of Treasury bills remained unchanged at €186.55 million.

The yield from the 273-day bill auction was -0.009 per cent, down by 0.9 basis point from bids with a similar tenor issued on September 18, 2015, representing a bid price of 100.0068 per 100 nominal.

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

Today, the Treasury will invite tenders for 28-day and 91-day bills maturing on December 10, 2015, and February 11, 2016, respectively.