Midday Commentary: Preferreds seen flat in Friday lull; Aflac, PNC stay active in trading

By Andrea Heisinger

New York, Sept. 21 - The preferred stock market was in its usual Friday state of low volume and some fluctuation in the most actively traded shares as of late morning in the New York session.

"The market's basically flat - up less than 1 cent," a trader said. "There's decent liquidity."

The recent 5.5% subordinated debentures priced at par of $25 by Aflac Inc. remained actively traded after topping volume at the close on Thursday.

The notes were seen at $24.78, which was the volume-weighted average price, as of midday, a trader said, commenting that they were "all over the place" and at one point were seen off 37 cents.

The recent 5.375% series Q perpetual preferreds from PNC Financial Services Group Inc. were the most actively traded issue as of midday.

A trader quoted the preferreds as up 4 cents with 560,000 shares trading. They had closed at $24.80 on Thursday as the second most active deal.

There was also more volume seen in the Annaly Capital Management Inc. 7.5% series D preferreds, although a trader seemed somewhat confused by the popularity of the issue.

"I mean, they cut their common dividend, but it wasn't by a lot, maybe 5 cents," he said.

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