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Bear Stearns High Yield Index returns 1.76% for year to Feb. 8
By Paul A. Harris
St. Louis, Feb. 9 - The Bear Stearns High Yield Index has returned 1.76% for the year to Feb. 8, having gained 0.73% on the month.
The yield to worst was 7.67%, nine basis points tighter than it was the previous week.
Meanwhile, the yield-to-worst spread was unchanged at 290 basis points over the same period.
On the year thus far, all 12 of the industry sectors that make up the index have posted positive returns.
The basic materials sector maintained its lead with a return of 2.58% on the year, having gained 0.67% through the course of the first six market sessions of February. Two of its components have led that sector's advance: paper/forest products up 3.94% on the year and metals up 3.18%.
On the year to Feb. 8, only one of the index's sub-sectors has posted a double-digit return. The health care sector's services-diagnostic component has returned 13.82%. However that sub-sector posted a negative 10.36% return for all of 2006 - the only one in the index to finish last year in the red.
Although all 12 of the sectors posted positive numbers for the year to Feb. 8, one slipped into the red through the course of February's first six market sessions.
The finance sector underperformed the index during that period with a negative 0.04% return. Its "other finance" component caused the slip with its negative 0.18% return, which also rendered it the underperformer for the month to Feb. 8.
Among the rated bonds in the index, the lowest-rated credit sector has trampled its counterparts in terms of year-to-date total return. The C rated paper has returned 3.39% thus far in 2007, outperforming its nearest counterpart, the single-B sector - up 1.74% on the year - by a total of 1.65 basis points.
On Feb. 8, the index had a market value of $618.32 billion, up $2.9 billion from the previous week. The issue count was one higher at 1,621.
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