Money Market Report for the week ending 4 October

ECB Monetary Operations

On 30 September the European Central Bank announced its weekly main refinancing operations. The operation was conducted on 1 October and attracted bids from euro area eligible counterparties of €1.82bn, €0.98bn 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 0.00%, in accordance with current ECB policy.

On 2 October, 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 $0.04bn, which was allotted in full at a fixed rate of 2.36%.

Domestic Treasury Bill Market

In the domestic primary market for Treasury bills, the Treasury invited tenders for 28-day and 91day bills for settlement value 3 October, maturing on 31 October and 2 January 2020, respectively. Bids of €49m were submitted for the 28-day bills, with the Treasury accepting €6m, while bids of €49m were also submitted for the 91-day bills, with the Treasury accepting €19m. Since €30m worth of bills matured during the week, the outstanding balance of Treasury bills decreased by €5m, at €274.3m.

The yield from the 28-day bill auction was -0.417%, a decrease of 6.1 basis points from bids with a similar tenor issued on 29 November 2018, representing a bid price of €100.0324 per €100 nominal. The yield from the 91-day bill auction was -0.407%, a decrease of 0.6 basis point from bids with a similar tenor issued on 26 September, representing a bid price of €100.1030 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-day and 182-day bills maturing on 7 November and 9 April 2020, respectively.