Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/423164
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 26 NOVEMBER 2014 11 Business Today www.creditinfo.com.mt info@creditinfo.com.mt Tel: 2131 2344 Your Local Partner for Credit Risk Management Solutions Supporting you all the way Exchange Rates Issue Date: 25-Nov-14 Set: 3 Issue Time: 14:55:51 Value Date: 28/11/2014 Currency Cash Cash Non-Cash Non-Cash Revaluation Buying Selling Selling Buying British Pound (GBP) 0.8270 0.7685 0.7725 0.8121 0.7923 United States Dollar (USD) 1.2957 1.2042 1.2104 1.2724 1.2414 Swiss Franc (CHF) 1.2558 1.1671 1.1731 1.2333 1.2032 Australian Dollar (AUD) 1.5200 1.4126 1.4199 1.4927 1.4563 Canadian Dollar (CAD) 1.4614 1.3581 1.3651 1.4351 1.4001 Japanese Yen (JPY) 153.1200 142.2990 143.0325 150.3675 146.7000 Danish Krone (DKK) 7.7700 7.2200 7.2500 7.6300 7.4400 Swedish Kronor (SEK) 9.6800 8.9900 9.0400 9.5000 9.2700 Hong Kong Dollar (HKD) 10.0495 9.3395 9.3876 9.8690 9.6283 Norwegian Krone (NOK) 8.8400 8.2200 8.2600 8.6800 8.4700 New Zealand Dollar (NZD) 1.6645 1.5469 1.5548 1.6346 1.5947 Singapore Dollar (SGD) 1.6893 1.5699 1.5780 1.6590 1.6185 South African Rand (ZAR) 14.2485 13.2418 13.3100 13.9926 13.6513 Czech Koruna (CZK) 28.7900 26.7500 26.8925 28.2716 27.5820 Polish Zloty (PLN) 4.3700 4.0600 4.0792 4.2884 4.1838 Hungarian Forint (HUF) 336.4058 287.4720 298.1781 313.4698 305.8197 Moroccan Dirham (MAD) 12.1220 10.3588 ********* ********* 11.0200 Tunisian Dinar (TND) 2.3900 2.2200 2.2317 2.3461 2.2889 United Arab Emirates Dirham (AED) 5.0159 4.2863 4.4459 4.6739 4.5599 Bahraini Dinar (BHD) 0.5149 0.4400 ********* ********* 0.4681 Gibraltar Pound (GIP) 0.8714 0.7447 ********* ********* 0.7922 Israeli New Sheqel (ILS) 5.2784 4.5106 ********* ********* 4.7985 Kuwaiti Dinar (KWD) 0.3979 0.3400 ********* ********* 0.3617 Saudi Riyal (SAR) 5.1235 4.3782 ********* ********* 4.6577 Turkish New Lira (TRY) ********* ********* 2.6959 2.8341 2.7650 Thailand BAHT (THB) ********* ********* 39.7197 41.7566 40.7382 Chinese Renminbi (CNY Onshore) ********* ********* 7.4277 7.8087 7.6182 Chinese Renminbi (CNH Offshore) ********* ********* 7.4438 7.8256 7.6347 All Chinese Renminbi transactions, irrespective of amounts, are to be referred to Branches or Treasury. Rates shown here are indicative only and are subject to change without notice. The final exchange rate offered by the bank /applied to your transaction may vary from the rate indicated here. Our staff at the Branches or Treasury will be pleased to provide you with exchange rates for your specific transactions. The rates quoted above are against the euro. 16.52 16.57 1193.45 1193.85 SILVER GOLD D + 1 SEPA payments and payments sent to countries and in the currencies regulated by the Payments Services Directive (PSD) D + 2 All Other Currencies US Dollars per TROY ounce Value Date Currency Same Day EUR/GBP/USD/CAD PUBLIC Regular market closed –26/11/2014 Symbol Code Volume Traded Value Traded Trades High Price Low Price Open Price Close Price Change Twap ▼ BOV 18798 42226.840 14 2.255 2.240 2.250 2.240 -0.009 2.246 ▲ FIM 500 315.000 1 0.630 0.630 0.630 0.630 0.030 0.630 ▲ HSB 5469 10527.830 3 1.925 1.925 1.925 1.925 0.005 1.925 ▼ IHI 6300 3478.000 3 0.560 0.550 0.560 0.550 -0.010 0.552 ● MDS 20000 27400.000 1 1.370 1.370 1.370 1.370 0.000 1.370 ● MIA 45 108.000 1 2.400 2.400 2.400 2.400 0.000 2.400 ▼ G15B 203495 213486.600 2 104.910 104.910 104.910 104.910 -0.010 104.910 ▼ G15F 5000 5177.000 1 103.540 103.540 103.540 103.540 -0.080 103.540 ▼ G16B 46588 50594.570 1 108.600 108.600 108.600 108.600 -0.020 108.600 ▼ G17C 50000 55340.000 1 110.680 110.680 110.680 110.680 -0.020 110.680 ▲ G20B 3400 4011.320 1 117.980 117.980 117.980 117.980 0.070 117.980 ▲ G21A 25624 31430.400 2 122.660 122.660 122.660 122.660 0.140 122.660 ▲ G22A 12346 15389.290 2 124.650 124.650 124.650 124.650 0.100 124.650 ▲ G22B 40000 47460.000 1 118.650 118.650 118.650 118.650 0.110 118.650 ▲ G24A 1000 1112.200 1 111.220 111.220 111.220 111.220 0.310 111.220 ▲ G28A 10300 12824.530 2 124.510 124.510 124.510 124.510 0.120 124.510 ▲ G28B 387000 468487.350 6 121.070 120.970 121.000 120.970 0.150 121.060 ▲ G29A 105000 133705.500 3 127.370 127.310 127.310 127.370 0.170 127.340 ▲ G30A 741000 952579.300 8 128.580 128.460 128.460 128.530 0.120 128.550 ▲ G31A 195000 247318.500 4 126.830 126.830 126.830 126.830 0.160 126.830 ▲ G32A 602000 713538.200 7 118.530 118.410 118.410 118.520 0.150 118.530 ▲ G32B 2065000 2388585.500 3 115.670 115.670 115.670 115.670 0.100 115.670 ▲ G33A 65000 73086.000 3 112.440 112.440 112.440 112.440 0.090 112.440 ▲ G34A 83000 91100.800 3 109.760 109.760 109.760 109.760 0.090 109.760 ▲ AX24A 2000 2140.000 2 107.000 107.000 107.000 107.000 1.000 107.000 ● BV19A 7500 8003.250 1 106.710 106.710 106.710 106.710 0.000 106.710 ▲ BV19B 200000 208080.000 2 104.040 104.040 104.040 104.040 0.030 104.040 ▼ HM24A 42800 44255.500 7 103.500 103.250 103.500 103.250 -0.250 103.400 ▲ IB15A 10000 10100.000 2 101.000 101.000 101.000 101.000 1.000 101.000 ▲ IG24A 3200 3392.000 1 106.000 106.000 106.000 106.000 0.490 106.000 ● IH23A 25000 25475.000 1 101.900 101.900 101.900 101.900 0.000 101.900 ▲ MF24A 2700 2837.700 1 105.100 105.100 105.100 105.100 0.100 105.100 ● MI15A 29200 26864.000 2 92.000 92.000 92.000 92.000 0.000 92.000 Money Market Report for the week ending November 21, 2014 ECB Monetary Operations On Monday, November 17, the European Central Bank (ECB) announced its weekly main refinancing operation (MRO). The auction was conducted on Tuesday, November 18, and attracted bids from euro area eligible counterparties of €102.59 billion, €4.17 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, November 19, the ECB conducted an eight-day US dollar funding operation through collateralised lending in conjunction with the US Federal Reserve. This operation was carried out at a fixed rate of 0.60% and did not attract bids from euro area eligible counterparties. Domestic Treasury Bill Market In the domestic primary market for Treasury bills, the Treasury invited tenders for 28-day and 91-day bills maturing on December 19, 2014, and February 20, 2015, respectively. Bids of €35.50 million were submitted for the 28-day bills, with the Treasury accepting €10.00 million, while bids of €44.50 million were submitted for the 91-day bills, with the Treasury accepting €11 million. Since €21 million worth of bills matured during the week, the outstanding balance of Treasury bills remained unchanged to stand at €248.49 million. The yield from the 28-day bill auction was 0.071%, i.e. 0.4 basis point lower than on bills with a similar tenor issued on November 14, 2014, representing a bid price of 99.9945 per 100 nominal. The yield from the 91-day bill auction was 0.090%, i.e. 0.8 basis point higher than on bills with a similar tenor issued on November 14, 2014, representing a bid price of 99.9773 per 100 nominal. During the week under review, there was no trading on the Malta Stock Exchange. On Tuesday the Treasury invited tenders for 26-day and 91-day bills maturing on December 24, 2014 and February 27, 2015, respectively. Market commentary: Subdued infl ation, weak German numbers characterize EU economy It has been a rough second half of the year for risky assets, both within the equity and credit space, despite the relative strong start to the year. The marked increase in volatility in H22014 has not only resulted in the erosion of performance of risky assets but also the snowballing effect on performance on the so-called safe- have assets such as Investment Grade bonds and sovereign (government bonds), primarily in the Eurozone. Heading into the New Year, asset managers are this time more than ever being faced with a mighty dilemma, that of preserving portfolio performance to date (and increase their cash holdings), maintain their allocations in the hope of an end-of- year rally, or else beginning to take strategic asset allocation decisions now to better position themselves and get a head-start in 2015. Tough call, difficult to say, but all 3 scenarios could be well justified. Event Risk in the short-to-medium term could turn all 3 strategies belly up, but with the unpredictability of the evolvement of market direction in the second half of this year, erring on the cautious and not taking on unnecessary might be the right way to play the markets. There has been lots of talk recently on the ECB's next move and which markets are going to benefit most from the next round of asset purchases. The inclusion of sovereign bond purchases seems to be a formality whilst a number of market participants also expect corporate bond to fit the bill. Any possible inclusion of corporate bonds could result in corporate bond purchases could drag corporate yields to yet again historical lows and could also result in a shift into the higher yielding US corporate bond market as well as into the higher spectrum of the European high yield bond market. It's difficult to say at this stage which scenario will materialise, what is sure, however, is that markets will continue to be driven by fundamentals. And any incoming economic data will without a doubt dictate market direction. The theme right now in Europe is subdued inflation and weak German economic numbers, which hand- in-hand, remain a drag on investor economic sentiment and growth. In Japan, the story is somewhat similar, with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe officially announcing his decision to postpone the VAT hike scheduled for October 2015 to April 2017 and concurrently dissolving parliament. On the flipside, we've got the US, whose central bank's tone continues to point towards a rate hike in mid-2015. And then, on a global macro scale, we have also had the oil crisis to contend with. With the marked decline in the price of oil negatively affecting the net oil exporting countries and energy companies, which make up a large chunk of the high yield market, the price of oil is going to be key over the coming weeks. This week's OPEC meeting and the decision on whether (or not) to trim the supply (in an attempt for demand to support the price of oil) will have oil exporting countries such as Venezuela and Libya in favour of such a move. Meanwhile, there are several economic data releases next week, including the eurozone unemployment rate as well as the second round of Q3 GDP figures in the US. Over recent months, subdued inflation has been one of they key themes – any surprise to the downside on this front could propel credit yields lower as this would place mounting pressure on the ECB to shore up its efforts in achieving its 2.0% target level, a far cry away from current levels. This article was issued by Calamatta Cuschieri, visit www.cc.com.mt for more information. The information, view and opinions provided in this article is being provided solely for educational and informational purposes and should not be construed as investment advice, advice concerning particular investments or investment decisions, or tax or legal advice. Calamatta Cuschieri & Co. Ltd has not verified and consequently neither warrants the accuracy nor the veracity of any information, views or opinions appearing on this website.