On Monday, May 26, the European Central Bank (ECB) announced its weekly Main Refinancing Operation (MRO). This operation attracted bids for €224.1 billion from euro area eligible counterparties, with the ECB allotting €170 billion, or 75.9 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 4.19 per cent, that is four basis points higher than the marginal rate resulting from the MRO of the previous week.

On Tuesday, May 27, the ECB also launched a scheduled Longer-Term Refinancing Operation (LTRO) with a maturity of three months. This operation attracted bids for €97.7 billion, with the ECB injecting €50 billion, representing 51.2 per cent of total bids. The resulting marginal rate was 4.51 per cent, which is one basis point higher than the marginal rate resulting from the previous three-month LTRO.

In the domestic primary market for Treasury bills, the Treasury invited tenders for 182-day bills maturing on November 28. Bids for €30.7 million were submitted, with the Treasury accepting €25.9 million. Since €22.7 million worth of bills matured during the week, the outstanding balance of Treasury bills increased by €3.2 million to €359.1 million.

The yield resulting from the auction was 4.963 per cent, 38.2 basis points higher than that on bills with a similar tenor issued on May 9. The latest yield represented a bid price of 97.5523 per 100 nominal.

Today the Treasury will invite tenders for 91-day bills maturing on September 5, and the following week it will invite tenders for 91-day bills maturing on September 12.

Treasury bill trading on the Malta Stock Exchange amounted to €1.2 million, while off-Exchange transactions amounted to €228,000. The bulk of the trades were conducted by the CBM in its role as market-maker.