Bear Stearns High Yield Index gains 0.17% in week to Dec. 29, year-to-date return at 1.76%

By Paul A. Harris

St. Louis, Dec. 30 - The Bear Stearns High Yield Index gained 0.17% during the week to Dec. 29. With only one market session remaining in 2005, the index's year-to-date return was 1.76%.

The gain follows the previous week's 0.11% gain.

For the week, the index's yield-to-worst spread widened by 7 basis points to 392 bps. The yield to worst increased on the week to 8.28% from 8.24%

The index has now reported gains in 54 of the past 81 weeks. Thus far in 2005, the index has posted 30 positive weekly returns versus 22 negative ones.

Ten of the 11 industry sectors making up the index posted gains in the most recent week.

As with the previous week, the utility sector was the outperformer for the week to Dec. 29, returning 0.73%, trimming its year-to-date losses to negative 1.31%. Its volatile independent power producers component gained 0.88% on the week, the second-strongest performance among the index sub-sectors on the week to Dec. 29, trimming its year-to-date losses to negative 2.53%.

Edging the independent power producers sub-sector by a single basis point to lead all index sub-sectors for the week was the basic materials sector's metals component, which returned 0.89%, trimming its year-to-date losses to negative 1.64.

The consumer cyclical sector was the only one of the 11 industry sectors to give up ground during the week, as it dropped by 0.22%, extending its year-to-date loss to negative 1.78%. The sector's automobile manufacturing-related component created the most drag as it dropped by negative 0.26% on the week, leaving it at negative 12.75% for the year to date.

With a single trading session remaining in 2005, telecommunications, with its 8.26% year-to-date return was poised to top its nearest competitor, the energy-oil and gas sector (5.31% year to date), by 295 bps.

Telecommunications saw a 0.40% return during the most recent week. With one session remaining, its cellular component, with a 15.58% year-to-date return, appears almost certain to be the only index sub-sector to finish with a positive double-digit return for 2005. Cellular gained 0.26% on the week.

The market value of the index ended the week at $553.08 billion, down from the previous week's $562.36 billion. The number of issues decreased by 39 to 1,696 issues.

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