Bear Stearns High Yield Index up 0.33%, rising for second week

New York, Oct. 25 - The Bear Stearns High Yield Index rose for a second week, adding 0.33% for the week to Oct. 24.

The two rises - the previous week the index was up 1.23% - follow four straight weeks of declines.

Thanks to the long losing spell, the measure is still firmly in the red for the year so far, with a total return of negative 9.38% since Jan. 1.

For the second consecutive week both technology and telecommunications were strong performers.

In the week just completed, telecommunications was number one among the 11 industry sectors making up the index with a gain of 4.65%. The previous week it had placed second with a 3.59% rise.

Runner up among the 11 groups was technology, which rose 4.25% after placing first the week before with a 4.03% return.

Moving in the other direction, media recorded the biggest loss, dropping 2.96% in the week. It is now down 18.41% year to date.

Despite the recent two weeks' strong performance, telecommunications remains the bottom performing sector year to date with a loss of 45.36%.

The first-placed sector continues to be consumer cyclicals with a 5.65% return so far this year after rising 0.40% in the week just completed.

Among the narrow industry groups into which each sector is divided, the best performer in the week to Oct. 24 was CLECs and other local carriers with a gain of 6.82%. However this sub-sector is still down 53.96% so far this year.

The bottom performer by far in the week just gone was North American cable, which plunged 11.73% and is now 42.00% lower since Jan. 1. As an indication of the size of the loss, the second-worst performer, freight containers-shipping, was down 3.13%. North American cable is the biggest component of media and the main contributor to the sector's poor performance in the week.

Year-to-date, the best return continues to be from diversified programmers which are up 36.61% after adding 0.29% in the most recent week.

In the other direction, long distance remains at the bottom with a loss of 73.57% year to date after adding 1.03% in the past week.

For the week, the index's yield to worst held unchanged at 14.55%, the same as seven days earlier. The yield-to-worst spread widened two basis points to 1,120 basis points from 1,118 basis points the week before.

The index's overall market value rose to $305.244 billion in 1,452 issues, both up from $302.575 billion in 1,446 issues a week earlier.

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