Preferreds start day up, give back gains; real estate investment trusts top most-actives list

By Andrea Heisinger

New York, Dec. 23 - The preferred stock market ended the week on light volume Friday. The market opened up but declined some throughout the morning.

"Europe was favorably expunged today," a trader said. "The market was up initially and then softened."

About 10 minutes after the market opened, it was up 50 basis points, he said, or about 12 cents on $25-par issues.

The market subsequently eased and lost half of that rally, landing up about 23 bps, or 5 to 6 cents per preferred, by 12:30 p.m. ET.

"Some things are trading," a market source said.

The source added that "there must be something going on in REIT land" because three real estate investment trust names were atop the most-actives list by midday.

A trader remarked that equities were up. This trader was "surprised [preferreds] are not up more, even at the open."

The trader said that overall, preferreds were up 25 cents at the open but were down about 25 cents by 12:30 p.m. ET.

"There's just not a lot going into Christmas Eve," a trader said.

REITs top trading

The most active preferreds of the day were from names in the REIT sector, a trader said.

Public Storage saw its series M preferreds trading 247,000 shares, quoted down 4 cents at $25.39.

Another name in the sector, Weingarten Realty Investors, was next on the most-actives list as its series F preferred stock traded 216,000 shares and was up 31 cents at $25.21.

Vornado Realty Trust was next in line with 202,000 preferreds changing hands and quoted down 3 cents at $25.15.

Rounding out the top five names were two preferreds from Deutsche Bank AG.

The company's DKT issue traded 178,000 shares and was up 23 cents at $23.97. The outstanding DUA issue had 174,000 shares trading and was down 5 cents at $18.30.

There wasn't a specific reason for the activity in Deutsche Bank shares, a trader said, adding that "they probably just adjusted something in their year-end portfolio."

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