On February 25, the European Central Bank (ECB) announced its weekly main refinancing operations (MRO). The operation was conducted on February 26 and attracted bids from euro area eligible counterparties of €6.49 billion, €0.56 billion higher 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 February 27, the ECB conducted a three-month, longer-term refinancing operation to be settled as a fixed rate tender procedure with full allotment, with the rate fixed at the average rate of the MROs over the life of the operation. The operation attracted bids of €1.32 billion from euro area eligible counterparties. The amount was allotted in full in accordance with current ECB policy.

Also, on February 27, 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 $0.06 billion, which was allotted in full at a fixed rate of 2.9 per cent.

Domestic Treasury bill market

In the domestic primary market for Treasury bills, the Treasury invited tenders for 91-day bills for settlement value February 28, maturing on May 30. Bids of €11  million were submitted, with the Treasury accepting €9 million. Since no bills matured during the week, the outstanding balance of Treasury bills increased by €9  million, to stand at €414.30 million.

The yield from the 91-day bill auction was -0.341 per cent, up by 0.2 basis point from bids with a similar tenor issued on February 21, representing a bid price of €100.0863 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 bills maturing on June 6.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.