On Monday, October 10, the European Central Bank announced its weekly main refinancing operation (MRO).

The operation was conducted on the following day, and attracted bids from euro area eligible counterparties of €32.89 billion, €1.48 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, October 12, 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 $0.18 billion, which was allotted in full at a fixed rate of 0.91 per cent.

Domestic Treasury bill market

In the domestic primary market for Treasury bills, the Treasury invited tenders for 28-day maturing on November 10. Bids of €45 million were submitted for the 28-day bills, with the Treasury accepting €4 million. Since €15 million worth of bills matured during the week, the outstanding balance of Treasury bills decreased by €11 million, to stand at €250.75 million.

The yield from the 28-day bill auction was -0.391 per cent, down by 0.1 basis points from bids with a similar tenor issued on October 6, representing a bid price of 100.0304 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 November 17 and January 19, 2017, respectively.