Bear Stearns High Yield Index returns 2.37% in year to March 1, down 0.35% in most recent week

By Paul A. Harris

St. Louis, March 2 - The Bear Stearns High Yield Index has returned 2.37% for the year to March 1, down 0.35% during the most recent week.

The yield to worst was 7.64%, 13 basis points wider than it was the previous week.

Meanwhile the yield-to-worst spread widened by 35 bps to 309 bps over the same period.

For all of February, the Bear Stearns index posted a total return of 1.34%.

All 12 of the industry sectors that make up the index posted positive returns for February and remain in the black year to date.

The technology sector finished the month having maintained its lead among all industry sectors, returning 2.05% during February and finishing the month with a 2.50% year-to-date return.

The finance sector wound up as the underperforming sector for February with its 0.32% return for the month, to end at 0.88% for the year to Feb. 28.

In terms of year-to-date returns among the industry sectors, the basic materials sector was the outperformer for the period through February with a return of 3.41%, having gained 1.48% for the month.

For 2007 to the end of February, only one of the Bear Stearns index subsectors has posted a double-digit return. The health care sector's services-diagnostic component has gained 14.61% - up 7.18% on the month. However that subsector posted a negative 10.36% return for all of 2006 - the only one in the index to finish last year in the red.

At the end of February the market value of the index stood at $620.71 billion. The issue count was 1,613 issues.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.