Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/430850
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 10 DECEMBER 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: 09-Dec-14 Set: 2 Issue Time: 14:43:35 Value Date: 11/12/2014 Currency Cash Cash Non-Cash Non-Cash Revaluation Buying Selling Selling Buying British Pound (GBP) 0.8247 0.7664 0.7703 0.8099 0.7901 United States Dollar (USD) 1.2921 1.2008 1.2070 1.2688 1.2379 Swiss Franc (CHF) 1.2548 1.1661 1.1721 1.2323 1.2022 Australian Dollar (AUD) 1.5565 1.4466 1.4540 1.5286 1.4913 Canadian Dollar (CAD) 1.4790 1.3745 1.3816 1.4524 1.4170 Japanese Yen (JPY) 154.5400 143.6182 144.3585 151.7615 148.0600 Danish Krone (DKK) 7.7700 7.2200 7.2500 7.6300 7.4400 Swedish Kronor (SEK) 9.7100 9.0200 9.0700 9.5300 9.3000 Hong Kong Dollar (HKD) 10.0165 9.3087 9.3567 9.8365 9.5966 Norwegian Krone (NOK) 9.1900 8.5400 8.5800 9.0200 8.8000 New Zealand Dollar (NZD) 1.6812 1.5624 1.5704 1.6510 1.6107 Singapore Dollar (SGD) 1.7021 1.5819 1.5900 1.6716 1.6308 South African Rand (ZAR) 14.7835 13.7389 13.8097 14.5179 14.1638 Czech Koruna (CZK) 28.8300 26.8000 26.9334 28.3146 27.6240 Polish Zloty (PLN) 4.3400 4.0400 4.0560 4.2640 4.1600 Hungarian Forint (HUF) 336.3945 287.4637 298.1692 313.4600 305.8104 Moroccan Dirham (MAD) 12.1110 10.3494 ********* ********* 11.0100 Tunisian Dinar (TND) 2.4000 2.2300 2.2404 2.3552 2.2978 United Arab Emirates Dirham (AED) 5.0015 4.2740 4.4331 4.6605 4.5468 Bahraini Dinar (BHD) 0.5134 0.4387 ********* ********* 0.4667 Gibraltar Pound (GIP) 0.8690 0.7426 ********* ********* 0.7900 Israeli New Sheqel (ILS) 5.3519 4.5735 ********* ********* 4.8654 Kuwaiti Dinar (KWD) 0.3973 0.3395 ********* ********* 0.3612 Saudi Riyal (SAR) 5.1096 4.3664 ********* ********* 4.6451 Turkish New Lira (TRY) ********* ********* 2.7280 2.8678 2.7979 Thailand BAHT (THB) ********* ********* 39.7328 41.7706 40.7516 Chinese Renminbi (CNY Onshore) ********* ********* 7.4683 7.8513 7.6598 Chinese Renminbi (CNH Offshore) ********* ********* 7.4715 7.8547 7.6631 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. 16.70 16.75 1215.65 1216.56 US Dollars per TROY ounce Value Date Currency Same Day EUR/GBP/USD/CAD 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 PUBLIC Regular market closed –9/12/2014 Symbol Code Volume Traded Value Traded Trades High Price Low Price Open Price Close Price Change Twap ● BOV 29501 65386.060 15 2.220 2.200 2.214 2.200 0.000 2.216 ▼ GO 19000 47180.090 6 2.510 2.480 2.480 2.510 -0.005 2.483 ▲ HSB 113486 215891.760 24 1.930 1.900 1.910 1.930 0.015 1.902 ▲ IHI 1789 948.170 1 0.530 0.530 0.530 0.530 0.010 0.530 ● RS2 3400 9958.600 1 2.929 2.929 2.929 2.929 0.000 2.929 ▲ G17C 2500 2765.250 1 110.610 110.610 110.610 110.610 0.020 110.610 ▲ G19A 4659 5888.510 1 126.390 126.390 126.390 126.390 0.060 126.390 ▲ G19E 15000 16602.000 1 110.680 110.680 110.680 110.680 0.210 110.680 ▲ G20A 11647 14165.080 1 121.620 121.620 121.620 121.620 0.150 121.620 ▲ G20B 7800 9215.700 2 118.150 118.150 118.150 118.150 0.140 118.150 ▲ G21A 51356 63143.920 4 123.020 122.900 122.900 123.020 0.220 122.950 ▲ G22A 5824 7298.050 1 125.310 125.310 125.310 125.310 0.660 125.310 ▲ G24A 25000 27997.500 1 111.990 111.990 111.990 111.990 0.360 111.990 ▲ G28A 10000 12601.000 1 126.010 126.010 126.010 126.010 0.380 126.010 ▲ G28B 70000 85636.000 3 122.480 122.230 122.230 122.480 0.350 122.340 ▲ G29A 51000 65815.500 3 129.050 129.050 129.050 129.050 0.380 129.050 ▲ G30A 516900 672171.600 7 130.160 130.000 130.000 130.160 0.350 130.040 ▲ G31A 120000 153740.000 2 128.140 128.000 128.000 128.140 0.280 128.120 ▲ G32A 30500 36490.200 4 119.640 119.640 119.640 119.640 0.090 119.640 ▲ G32B 199000 232213.100 11 116.690 116.690 116.690 116.690 0.230 116.690 ▲ G33A 130800 148621.920 6 113.740 113.590 113.590 113.740 0.230 113.630 ▼ G34A 265200 294100.450 18 111.000 110.500 110.500 110.850 -0.150 110.900 ▼ AX24A 1800 1944.350 2 108.020 108.010 108.010 108.020 0.010 108.020 ▲ BV19A 4100 4387.000 1 107.000 107.000 107.000 107.000 0.290 107.000 ● GF21A 1200 1252.920 1 104.410 104.410 104.410 104.410 0.000 104.410 ▼ HB17A 8619 8974.100 1 104.120 104.120 104.120 104.120 -0.010 104.120 ▼ HB18A 5200 5693.500 2 109.500 109.250 109.500 109.250 -0.200 109.490 ▼ HM24A 22900 23726.450 4 103.750 103.500 103.750 103.550 -0.200 103.610 ▲ MF24A 1700 1802.000 1 106.000 106.000 106.000 106.000 0.250 106.000 ● MI15A 2000 1880.000 1 94.000 94.000 94.000 94.000 0.000 94.000 ● MI21A 5300 4929.000 2 93.000 93.000 93.000 93.000 0.000 93.000 Money Market Report for the week ending December 5, 2014 ECB decisions On Thursday, December 4, the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) decided that the interest rate on the main refinancing operations (MRO) and the interest rates on the marginal lending facility and the deposit facility will remain unchanged at 0.05%, 0.30% and -0.20% respectively. ECB Monetary Operations On Monday, December 1, the ECB announced its weekly MRO. The auction was conducted on Tuesday, December 2, and attracted bids from euro area eligible counterparties of €98.05 billion, €16.26 billion 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, December 3, the ECB conducted a seven- 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 0.63% 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 91-day and 182-day bills maturing on March 6, 2015, and June 5, 2015, respectively. Bids of €35.50 million were submitted for the 91-day bills, with the Treasury accepting €8.00 million, while bids of €44.35 million were submitted for the 182-day bills, with the Treasury accepting €17.00 million. Since €31.35 million worth of bills matured during the week, the outstanding balance of Treasury bills decreased by €6.35 million, to stand at €234.64 million. The yield from the 91-day bill auction was 0.080%, i.e. 0.5 basis point lower than on bills with a similar tenor issued on November 28, 2014, representing a bid price of 99.9798 per 100 nominal. The yield from the 182-day bill auction was 0.115%, i.e. 3.1 basis points lower than on bills with a similar tenor issued on November 7, 2014, representing a bid price of 99.9419 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 91-day bills maturing on January 9 and March 13, 2015, respectively. Market commentary: 'Wait and see' ECB stance keeps credit at bay Following a somewhat expected out- come at the previous week's OPEC meeting, markets were last week characterised by the persistent talk about the plummeting price of oil, as well as the disappointing speech dur- ing the ECB rate setting meeting last Thursday. On the one hand, following a short- lived rebound and breathing space early on in the week, the price of oil fell below $70 a barrel as OPEC's decision to leave its production quota unchanged at its last meeting has caused a widespread slashing in the price of oil on the back of abundant supply. Meanwhile, the lack of action at Thursday's ECB meeting fell short of market expectations (albeit nothing concrete and formalised was expected so soon, merely additional guidance and timeframes, which was clearly lacking) especially if you bear in mind the strong words both the president and vice president had in favour of a preferred bias to asset purchases. It's clear at this stage that, prior to making the next round of QE a formality, the ECB is kind of buying time, awaiting to see the outcome of the take-up of this week's TLRO exercise as well as the possible effect the recent decline in the price of oil could have on consumer consumption in the eurozone. It has become pretty much a wait and see, and, so to speak meddling of words over recent weeks, but it has become increasingly evident that there is no turning back on its word (or speculation rather), as anything short of markets expectations as far as QE is concerned could prove catastrophic in what we could describe the current state of markets to be rather fragile, to say the least. Meanwhile in the US, the Labour Department last Friday that "The U.S. economy is on track for its strongest year of job creation since 1999, as employers last month ramped up hiring and wage growth posted a small—but potentially significant—pickup. Nonfarm payrolls rose a seasonally adjusted 321,000 in November, the strongest month of hiring since January 2012. Hiring was broad across industries, led by gains in the professional and business-services sector." Clear signs that, structurally, the US economy is getting back on its feet. On the monetary policy front, recent Fed comments suggest a persistent build-up towards a mid- year hike, with the focus on the next FOMC meeting being on whether the famous phrase "considerable time" will be dropped from its statement next week, referring to the time required for FOMC members to feel comfortable enough that incoming data, primary job numbers and inflationary numbers (read in tandem amongst many other data points) warrant a rate hike. On the data front, this week, retail sales this week are expected to show a rise of 0.3% m/m in November, the same increase as during the previous month. Sales on 'Black Friday' per fell below expectations but when seen over the 4 day period (Thursday-Monday), sales indicated an increase of 20% over the same period in 2013. Key events and numbers to watch out for this week are the University of Michigan Confidence and Retail sales (as mentioned earlier above) in the US, Unemployment numbers for the Euro area as a whole, Greece, Sweden, and Australia; GDP for Ireland and Japan, as well as key numbers such as CPI for Germany, Denmark, Greece, Italy, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Ireland, and Mexico. It is worth pointing out to our readers that Ireland, which until a few years ago was rumoured to be on the brink of a sovereign default, has had its credit rating improved by S&P last week, with the rating agency stating that the "the country's economic prospects had improved in the past year" and upgraded its average GDP growth projections for 2014-2016 to 3.7% - up 1%. It said inflows from foreign direct investment had proven to be exceptionally high in recent years, while strong GNP growth suggested a strong recovery in the domestic economy too. S&P placed a stable outlook on the country's economic prospects. This article was issued by Mr. Mark Vella, Investment Manager at Calamatta Cuschieri. For more information visit www.cc.com.mt . 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.