On Monday, October13, the European Central Bank (ECB) announced its weeklymain refinancing operation(MRO).The auction was conducted on Tuesday, October14, and attracted bids from euro area eligible counterparties of €82.52billion, €1.69billion 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 0.05%, in accordance with current ECB policy.

On Wednesday, October15, the ECB conducted a seven-day US dollar funding operation through collateralised lending in conjunction with the US Federal Reserve.  This operation was carried out at a fixed rate of 0.58% and did not attract bids from euro area eligible counterparties.

 

Domestic Treasury Bill Market

In the domestic primary market for Treasury bills, the Treasury invited tenders for 28-day and 182-day bills maturing on November 14, 2014, and April 17, 2015, respectively. Bids of €15.00 million were submitted for the 28-day bills, with the Treasury accepting €10.00 million, while bids of €38.00 million were submitted for the 182-day bills, with the Treasury accepting €16.00 million. Since €25.65 million worth of bills matured during the week, the outstanding balance of Treasury bills increased by €0.35 million, to stand at €298.92 million.

The yield from the 28-day bill auction was 0.045%, i.e. 1.5 basis pointshigher than on bills with a similar tenor issued on October10, 2014, representing a bid price of 99.9965 per 100 nominal.The yield from the 182-day bill auction was 0.154%, i.e. 0.4 basis point higher than on bills with a similar tenor issued on September26, 2014, representing a bid price of 99.9222 per 100 nominal.

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

On Tuesday the Treasury invited tenders for 28-daybills maturing on November21, 2014.