Bear Stearns High Yield Index finishes week with 6.6% year-to-date return

By Paul A. Harris

St. Louis, Sept. 15 - The Bear Stearns High Yield Index has returned 6.60% for the year to Sept. 14, a gain of just under half a percentage point from the 6.11% level reported one week previous.

For the month to Sept. 14, the index is up 0.85%.

During the most recent week, the yield to worst widened by 46 basis points to 8.93%. Over the same period, the yield-to-worst spread also widened by 46 bps to 416 bps.

For the month to Sept. 14, all 12 of the index industry sectors showed positive returns.

The health care sector is the month-to-date outperformer with its 1.53% return. However, health care is the only index industry sector mired in the red for the year to date, having posted a negative 0.11% return for 2006 to Sept. 14, rendering it the index's year-to-date underperformer.

The recent health of the health care sector can largely be chalked up to its hospital management component, which has returned 2.46% for the month to Sept. 14. Like the health care sector, though, the hospital management subsector remains in the red for 2006 at negative 4.82%.

Among the industry subsectors, the telecommunications sector's ESMR & PCS component has turned in the strongest month-to-date performance at 3.35%, increasing its year-to-date return to 5.18%.

The strongest year-to-date performance among the industry sectors is that of the consumer cyclical sector, which has returned 10.32% for the year to Sept. 14, the only sector to render a double-digit return for 2006 so far. Consumer cyclical has advanced 0.83% during the month to Sept. 14.

The 17.13% year-to-date return of that sector's automobile manufacturing related component - up 1.15% thus far in September - has led the consumer cyclical sector's conspicuous rally.

The year-to-date outperformer among subsectors is the transportation sector's airlines component, which has returned 24.12% for the year to date, and it is up 0.34% for the month.

To Sept. 14, the index had a market value of $575.87 billion, and the issue count stood at 1,642 issues.

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