Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/662335
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 6 APRIL 2016 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 Money Market Report for the week ending April 1, 2016 ECB Monetary Operations On Thursday, March 24, the European Central Bank (ECB) announced its weekly main refinancing operation (MRO). The operation was conducted on Tuesday, March 29, and attracted bids from euro area eligible counterparties of €62.32 billion, €1.74 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 0.00%, in accordance with current ECB policy. On Wednesday, March 30, the ECB conducted a three-month, longer-term refinancing operation to be settled as a fixed rate tender procedure with full allotment, with the rate fixed at the average rate of the MROs over the life of the operation. The auction attracted bids of €10.25 billion from euro area eligible counterparties. The amount was allotted in full in accordance with current ECB policy. Also on Wednesday, March 30, 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 $0.05 billion, which was allotted in full at a fixed rate of 0.87%. Domestic Treasury Bill Market In the domestic primary market for Treasury bills, the Treasury invited tenders for 90-day and 181- day bills maturing on June 30 and September 29, 2016, respectively. Bids of €10.00 million were submitted for the 90-day bills, with the Treasury accepting all bids, while bids of €10.00 million were also submitted for the 181-day bills, with the Treasury accepting €5.00 million. Since €13.00 million worth of bills matured during the week, the outstanding balance of Treasury bills increased by €2.00 million, to stand at €369.65 million. The yield from the 90-day bill auction was -0.138%, up by 0.2 basis point from bids with a similar tenor issued on March 24, 2016, representing a bid price of 100.0345 per 100 nominal. The yield from the 181-day bill auction was -0.095%, up by 0.1 basis point from bids with a similar tenor issued on March 24, 2016, representing a bid price of 100.0478 per 100 nominal. During the week under review, there was no trading on the Malta Stock Exchange. On Tuesday the Treasury invited tenders for 91-day and 182-day bills maturing on July 7 and October 6, 2016, respectively. Tesla receives over 275,000 pre-oders for Model 3 electric car Tesla founder and chief execu- tive Elon Musk says pre-orders of the firm's much-anticipated Model 3 electric car currently to- tal 276,000. The California-based firm unveiled the five-seater car - its lowest-cost vehicle to date - on Thursday. Mr Musk tweeted the total reflected the orders received by the end of Saturday. Pre-orders of the Model 3 will not necessarily all translate into actual sales when the car is released, with first deliveries in late 2017. It can be ordered in advance in dozens of countries, including the UK, Republic of Ireland, Brazil, India, China and New Zealand. Potential car owners need to put down $1,000 deposits to reserve their vehicles. Such has been the interest that Musk tweeted the company was "definitely going to need to rethink production planning". Musk has said his goal is to produce about 500,000 vehicles a year once production is at full capacity. The basic model will start at $35,000 and have a range of at least 350km per charge. Tesla delivered 50,580 vehicles last year. Most of those were its Model S saloon, which overtook Nissan's Leaf to become the world's best selling pure-electric vehicle. But the firm still posted a net loss of $889m for 2015, partly because it spent $718m on research and development over the period. It left Tesla with cash reserves of $1.2bn, down from $1.9bn a year earlier. The company is facing competition from other electric cars with a similar price and range that will become available first, including General Motors' Chevy Bolt and BYD's Qin EV300. Lower oil prices hit Asian stocks Many Asian markets fell on Tuesday as the decline in the oil price appeared to weigh on investor sentiment. In Japan, the benchmark Nikkei 225 closed down 2.4% at 15,732.82, the sixth session in a row that the index has fallen. In South Korea, the Kospi index closed down 0.8% at 1,962.74, the lowest close in a month. US stocks ended lower on Monday after the price of US crude oil fell 3% in New York trade. The drop extended falls from the previous two trading sessions, as hopes faded that oil producers would agree to curb production at their meeting on 17 April. Oil prices hit a peak of $115-a-barrel in June 2014, but have plunged by more than 70% since then because of oversupply and sluggish demand. The oil producers' meeting later this month will take place in the Qatari capital, Doha. It will involve Opec and non- Opec members and will discuss freezing supply at January levels to help push the oil price back up. In Australia, the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 fell 70.92 points, or 1.4%, to 4,924.40. Shares of Australian energy producers Santos and Woodside Petroleum both fell more than 3%, under pressure due to the slide in oil prices. The Reserve Bank of Australia, the country's central bank, left its key lending rate at 2% following its monthly meeting. The decision to keep rates at the record low had been widely expected by economists polled by Reuters. Meanwhile the Reserve Bank of India trimmed its key lending rate to commercial banks to 6.5% from 6.75%. The central bank governor there, Raghuram Rajan cites a fall in inflation for the latest rate cut. This is India's first-rate cut this year. In Hong Kong, the benchmark Hang Seng index fell 1.6% to 20,177.00, while China's Shanghai Composite index rose 43.54 points, or 1.5%, to 3,053.07. Taiwan remains shut for a public holiday and markets there will re-open on Wednesday.