Bear Stearns High Yield Index drops 1.28% in latest week, down 8.29% year to date

New York, Oct. 4 - The Bear Stearns High Yield Index dropped 1.28% in the week to Oct. 3, its third loss in a row. The decline dragged the index's year-to-date return down to negative 8.29%.

The most recent fall follows a 1.41% decline the week before and a 0.56% loss the week before that. Those came after four straight weeks of gains.

For the second week in a row, all 11 industry sectors making up the index were in negative territory.

Worst of the 11 was transportation which plunged 4.34%, pulling its year-to-date loss down to 23.38%.

The smallest decline was seen in finance, which slipped just 0.04% in the week and is now down 1.69% so far this year.

Telecommunications remains the bottom performer year-to-date with a loss of 47.56% after declining 1.78% in the week to Oct. 3.

Consumer cyclicals are still on top for 2002 so far with a gain of 6.62% despite falling 0.62% in the week just completed.

By narrow sub-sector, the worst performer was international cable which lost 9.00% in the week just completed, closely followed by North American cable with an 8.50% decline. The sectors are down 51.75% and 32.70% respectively since Jan. 1.

Long distance was the leading sub-sector in the week to Oct. 3, rising 1.66% but it is still down 73.70% year-to-date, the worst of any of the sub-sectors.

Once again the best performer so far this year is diversified programmers, up 35.43% after adding 0.46% in the week just gone.

For the week, the index's yield to worst rose 22 basis points to 13.01% from 13.79% seven days earlier. The yield-to-worst spread widened 32 basis points to 1,108 basis points compared to 1,076 basis points the week before.

Overall the index ended with a market value of $306.313 billion in 1,443 issues, less value but more issues than $309.191 billion in 1,437 issues a week earlier.

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