ECB Monetary Operations

On Monday, 3 August, the European Central Bank (ECB) announced its weekly main refinancing operation (MRO). The auction was conducted on Tuesday, 4 August and attracted bids from euro area eligible counterparties of €71.01bn, €9.02bn 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, 5 August, 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 $0.23bn, 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 bills maturing on 5 November. Bids of €43m were submitted, with the Treasury accepting €10m. Since €12m worth of bills matured during the week, the outstanding balance of Treasury bills decreased by €2m, to stand at €246.55m.

The yield from the 90-day bill auction was -0.047%, down by 0.6 basis point from bids with a similar tenor issued on 31 July, representing a bid price of 100.0118 per 100 nominal.

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