Bear Stearns High Yield Index up again, rises 1.02%; November third best month ever

New York, Dec. 2 - The Bear Stearns High Yield Index rose again in the week to Nov. 27, adding 1.02%. The gain extended its recent positive run to seven straight weeks and helped make November its third strongest month ever.

The most recent weekly rise follows gains of 2.38%, 0.74%, 2.33%, 1.50%, 0.33% and 1.23% in the preceding weeks.

Year-to-date, the index is now down 1.93%. On a weekly basis, it had been as low as 9.20% for the report on Aug. 16 and has not been in positive territory since the report for the week to June 27.

For November, the index returned 6.61%.

In a report on the month's performance, Bear Stearns analyst Michael Taylor said that rise makes November the third best month ever, lagging only the 9.0% return in February 1991 and 6.9% in January 2001.

Taylor also noted that the index is up 9.90% since its low on Oct. 10, a performance which "may take away some of the upside of expected +8-10% returns for next year."

Gains in the most recent week were led by technology, which added 2.40%, followed by transportation at 2.30% and utilities at 2.02%.

Of the 11 industry sectors making up the index the weakest, and the only one to show a loss for the seven days, was finance, which dropped 0.49%.

Year to date the strongest sector remains consumer cyclicals, up 10.30% after rising 0.58% in the week just completed.

Telecommunications continues to bring up the rear with a loss of 35.00% since Jan. 1 after rising 0.73% in the week to Nov. 27.

Among narrow sub-sectors, the best return in the seven days was airlines, which rose 3.26% although the sector is still down 20.10% so far this year (technology is not divided into sub-sectors).

In the other direction, the banking sub-sector of finance recorded the biggest loss with a 4.29% decline. Banking, however, is still ahead 6.74% for the year so far. The only other losses in the week were in metals and mining, down 0.11% and 0.07% respectively.

Year-to-date, the top performer among the sub-sectors is still the "other consumer cyclical" group with a total return of 19.84% after rising 1.31% in the week to Nov. 27.

Long distance remains in last place with a loss of 70.90% after rising 1.54% in the most recent week.

For the week, the index's yield to worst fell 16 basis points to 12.89% from 13.05% seven days earlier. The yield-to-worst spread narrowed 24 basis points to 952 basis points from 976 basis points the week before.

The index's overall market value rose to $330.223 billion in 1,458 issues, up from $325.332 billion in 1,453 issues a week earlier.

Breaking down November's returns, all 11 of the industry sectors showed positive performance, with transportation leading at 14.30%. The smallest gain was seen in consumer cyclicals with a rise of 3.38%.

Among sub-sectors, towers was the leader with a gain of 24.00%. The biggest loss was in broadband access and internet services, down 4.90%. Only three other sub-sectors, banking, textile and apparel, and mining were in the red for the month with declines of 3.96%, 0.67% and 0.32% respectively.

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