On Monday, September 12, the European Central Bank announced its weekly main refinancing operation (MRO). The operation was conducted on Tuesday, September 13, and attracted bids from euro area eligible counterparties of €41.58 billion, €0.20 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 zero per cent, in accordance with current ECB policy.
On Wednesday, September 14, the ECB conducted a seven-day US dollar funding operation through collateralised lending in conjunction with the US Federal Reserve. This operation was carried out at a fixed ratio of 0.92 per cent and did not attract bids from euro area eligible counterparties.
During the week under review, participants in the first series of targeted longer-term refinancing operations shall have, on a semi-annual basis, the option of terminating or reducing their outstanding amount in these operations before maturity. Accordingly, on September 28, a total of €9.36 billion will be repaid.
Domestic Treasury bill market
In the domestic primary market for Treasury bills, the Treasury invited tenders for 91-day maturing on December 15. Bids of €55 million were submitted for the 91-day bills, with the Treasury accepting €15 million. Since €20 million worth of bills matured during the week, the outstanding balance of Treasury bills decreased by €5 million, to stand at €269.75 million.
The yield from the 91-day bill auction was -0.387 per cent, down by 2.4 basis points from bids with a similar tenor issued on September 7, representing a bid price of 100.0979 per 100 nominal.
During the week under review, there was no trading on the Malta Stock Exchange.
Yesterday, the Treasury invited tenders for 91-day and 273-day bills maturing on December 22 and June 22, 2017, respectively.