On Monday, April 14, the European Central Bank (ECB) announced its weekly Main Refinancing Operation (MRO). This operation attracted bids for €249.7 billion from euro area eligible counterparties. The ECB allotted €204.5 billion, or 81.9 per cent of the total amount bid for.

The marginal rate, which is the rate at which the total tender allotment is exhausted, was set by the ECB at 4.21 per cent, down two basis points from the rate that resulted from the MRO of the previous week.

On Tuesday, April 15, it being the end of the maintenance period, the ECB also launched a fine tuning operation. The ECB intended to absorb €21 billion through a liquidity absorbing operation, set at a fixed rate of four per cent. But as bids for a total of €14.9 million only were submitted, they were fully met.

In the domestic primary market for Treasury bills, the Treasury invited tenders for 91-day bills maturing on July 18. The Treasury accepted in full the €16.2 million worth of bids submitted. Since €2 million worth of bills matured during the week, the outstanding balance of Treasury bills increased by € 14.2 million to €331.8 million.

The yield resulting from the auction was 4.504 per cent, that is 20.8 basis points higher than that on bills with a similar tenor issued on April 4. The latest yield represented a bid price of 98.8743 per 100 nominal.

Today, the Treasury will invite tenders for 91-day bills maturing on July 25.

Treasury bill trading on the Malta Stock Exchange amounted to only €65,100, with the Bank acting as market maker. No transactions were conducted off-exchange.