On Monday, April 16, the ECB announced its weekly Main Refinancing Operation. The auction was conducted on Tuesday, April 17, and attracted bids from euro area eligible counterparties of €51.78 billion, €3.59 billion lower than the bid amount in the previous week.

The amount was allotted in full at a fixed rate equivalent to the prevailing main refinancing rate of one per cent, in accordance with current ECB policy.

On Tuesday, April 17, the ECB also conducted an auction for a seven-day fixed-term deposit intended to absorb €214 billion. This operation is designed to sterilise the effect of purchases made under the Securities Markets Programme that were settled but had not yet matured by the previous Friday, April 13.

The auction was carried out at a variable rate, with euro area eligible counterparties allowed to place up to four bids at a maximum rate of one per cent. It attracted bids amounting to €438.32 billion, with the ECB allotting €214 billion, or 48.82 per cent, of the total bid amount. The marginal rate on the auction was set at 0.26 per cent, with the weighted average rate also at 0.26 per cent.

On Wednesday, April 18, 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 $0.88 billion, which was allotted in full at a fixed rate of 0.65 per cent.

Domestic Treasury bill market

In the domestic primary market for Treasury bills, the Treasury invited tenders for 91-day and 182-day bills maturing on July 20 and October 19 respectively.

Bids of €23.75 million were submitted for the 91-day bills with the Treasury accepting €11.75 million, while bids of €14.32 million were submitted for the 182-day bills, with the Treasury accepting €8.24 million. Since €5 million worth of bills matured during the week, the outstanding balance of Treasury bills increased by €14.99 million, to stand at €217.93 million.

The yield from the 91-day bill auction was 0.887 per cent, i.e. 0.9 basis point higher than on bills with a similar tenor issued on April 5, representing a bid price of 99.7763 per 100 nominal.

The yield from the 182-day bill auction was 1.093 per cent, i.e. 4.3 basis points higher than on bills with a similar tenor issued on March 23, representing a bid price of 99.4505 per 100 nominal.

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

Today the Treasury will invite tenders for 91-day and 182-day bills maturing on July 27 and October 26 respectively.