ECB decisions
On Thursday, July 16, the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) decided that the interest rates on the main refinancing operations (MRO), on the marginal lending facility and on the deposit facility will remain unchanged at 0.05%, 0.30% and -0.20%, respectively.
ECB Monetary Operations
On Monday, July 13, the ECB announced its weekly MRO. The auction was conducted on Tuesday, July 14, and attracted bids from euro area eligible counterparties of €75.54 billion, €1.07 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 0.05%, in accordance with current ECB policy.
On Wednesday, July 15, 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 $0.66 billion, which was allotted in full at a fixed rate of 0.63%.
Domestic Treasury Bill Market
In the domestic primary market for Treasury bills, the Treasury invited tenders for 90-day and 272-day bills maturing on October 15, 2015 and April 14, 2016, respectively. Bids of €41.00 million were submitted for the 90-day bills, with the Treasury accepting €15.00 million, while bids of €43.00 million were submitted for the 272-day bills, with the Treasury accepting €5.00 million. Since €20.00 million worth of bills matured during the week, the outstanding balance of Treasury bills remained unchanged at €247.55 million.
The yield from the 90-day bill auction was -0.030%, down by 0.5 basis point from bids with a similar tenor issued on July 10, 2015, representing a bid price of 100.0075 per 100 nominal. The yield from the 272-day bill auction was 0.000%, down by 48.8 basis points from bids with a similar tenor issued on July 11, 2014, representing a bid price of 100.0000 per 100 nominal.
During the week under review, there was no trading on the Malta Stock Exchange.
On Tuesday the Treasury invited tenders for 90-day bills maturing on October 22, 2015.