Bank of America begins consent solicitation for preferred issues; trading volume remains low

By Andrea Heisinger

New York, Nov. 15 - The preferred stock market remained low on new issues and trading volume on Tuesday after a disappointing start to the week.

A sale from Winthrop Realty Trust announced on Monday had not priced as of late afternoon, and price guidance on the yield remained 9.25%. The deal size is expected to be 2 million preferreds, or $50 million.

Other news came from Bank of America Corp. The big bank announced that it is soliciting consent from holders of some of its preferred securities to amend the declaration of trust.

A trader said he saw "no meaningful movement" on Bank of America's outstanding preferred issues.

Trading remained sluggish. Monday was "the lowest-volume day of the year so far," a secondary source said. "Today's not much better."

News out of Italy that its debt hit a 7% yield seemed to be balanced by better-than-expected retail sales figures for the United States, the secondary source said.

"There's no news, no direction out of Washington," he said. "The market's up 63 points, so it's not terrible out there. Nothing's moving."

A source said in late afternoon that on a percentage basis, the market was off by 27 basis points for an average loss of 7 cents per preferred.

"There was really no volume today," he said.

BofA dominates trading

There was little in the way of trading for the day. Three out of the top four most-active issues for the day were up.

Bank of America took three of the top four spots, a trader said.

The bank's series J preferreds saw 360,000 shares traded, taking the No. 1 spot on the list. They ended the day up 6 cents at $18.40.

Ally Financial Inc.'s series A trust preferreds came in second with 357,000 shares. They ended the day up 5 cents at $19.55.

Bank of America was back in the third and fourth spots. Its series H issue traded 354,000 shares, up 5 cents on the day at $16.45. The bank's series Q issue didn't fare as well with 350,000 shares trading - they ended the day down 6 cents at $23.90.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.