ECB Monetary Operations

On Monday, 15 June, the European Central Bank (ECB) announced its weekly main refinancing operation (MRO). The auction was conducted on Tuesday, 16 June and attracted bids from euro area eligible counterparties of €89.66bn, €0.74bn 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, 17 June, the ECB conducted a seven-day US dollar funding operation through collateralised lending in conjunction with the US Federal Reserve. This operation attracted one bid of $0.12bn, which was allotted in full at a fixed rate of 0.64%.

On Thursday, 18 June, the ECB conducted the fourth Targeted Longer Term Refinancing Operation, as announced in the press release of Thursday, 5 June 2014. This operation attracted bids of €73.79bn, which was allotted in full at a fixed rate of 0.05%.

Domestic Treasury Bill Market

In the domestic primary market for Treasury bills, the Treasury invited tenders for 91- and 181-day bills maturing on 18 September and 17 December, respectively. Bids of €3m were submitted for the 91-day bills, with the Treasury accepting €2m, while bids of €13m were submitted for the 181-day bills, with the Treasury accepting €10m. Since €2m worth of bills matured during the week, the outstanding balance of Treasury bills increased by €10m, to stand at €214.05m.

The yield from the 91-day bill auction was 0.030%, up by 3.5 basis points from bids with a similar tenor issued on 12 June, representing a bid price of 99.9924 per 100 nominal. The yield from the 181-day bill auction was 0.00%, unchanged from bids with a similar tenor issued on 29 May, representing a bid price of 100.00 per 100 nominal.

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