ECB Monetary Operations
On Monday, 11 February, the European Central Bank (ECB) announced its weekly main refinancing operation. The auction was conducted on Tuesday, 12 February, and attracted bids from euro area eligible counterparties of €128.68bn, €0.63bn lower than the bid amount in the previous week. The amount was allotted in full at a fixed rate equivalent to the prevailing main refinancing rate of 0.75%, in accordance with current ECB policy.
On Tuesday, 12 February, the ECB conducted a special-term refinancing operation with a maturity of 28 days. This attracted bids of €7.76bn, which was allotted in full at a fixed rate equivalent to the prevailing main refinancing rate of 0.75%, also in accordance with the current ECB policy.
Also on Tuesday, 12 February, the ECB conducted an auction for a seven-day fixed-term deposit intended to absorb €205.5bn. This operation was designed to sterilise the effect of purchases made under the Securities Markets Programme that were settled but had not yet matured by the previous Friday, 8 February. The auction was carried out at a variable rate, with euro area eligible counterparties allowed to place up to four bids at a maximum rate of 0.75%. It attracted bids amounting to €349.54bn with the ECB allotting €205.5bn or 58.79% of the total bid amount. The marginal rate on the auction was set at 0.06%, with the weighted average rate set at 0.04%.
On Wednesday, 13 February, 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 $1bn, which was allotted in full at a fixed rate of 0.65%.
Domestic Treasury Bill Market
In the domestic primary market for Treasury bills, the Treasury invited tenders for 91-day and 182-day bills maturing on 17 May and 16 August, respectively. Bids of €31.9m were submitted for the 91-day bills, with the Treasury accepting only €1m, while bids of €27.25m were submitted for the 182-day bills, with the Treasury accepting only €1.05m. Since no maturing Treasury bills were recorded during the week, the outstanding balance of Treasury bills increased by €2.05m, to stand at €283.80m.
The yield from the 91-day bill auction was 0.770%, i.e. 0.7 basis point higher than that on bills with a similar tenor issued on 8 February, representing a bid price of 99.8057 per 100 nominal. The yield from the 182-day bill auction was 0.800%, i.e. 4.7 basis points lower than on bills with a similar tenor issued on 25 January, representing a bid price of 99.5972 per 100 nominal.
During the week under review, Treasury bill trading on the Malta Stock Exchange amounted to €1.05m and was conducted by the Central Bank of Malta in its role as market-maker.
On Tuesday, the Treasury invited tenders for 91-day bills and 273-day bills maturing on 24 May and 22 November, respectively.