New Allstate preferreds climb again; Bank of America preferreds trade up in high volume

By James McCandless

San Antonio, April 3 – The preferred stock market saw a quieter day Tuesday as newer issues continued to drive activity.

Allstate Corp. led the session again with its new $500 million of $25-par series G perpetual preferred shares.

Bank of America Corp.’s preferreds continued trading up, riding on news that it would redeem all series M and some series K preferreds.

Wells Fargo & Co. saw losses in its preferreds, providing much of the day’s volume.

Allstate’s new issue rises

Traders reported that Allstate’s new $500 million of 5.625% $25-par perpetual preferred shares, which priced last Tuesday, led preferred trading once again. The deal was originally priced at $200 million in Monday price talk.

“Allstate has really led the market with these over the past week,” a trader said.

The series B preferreds gained 7 cents to close at $25.15.

Bank of America mixed

Bank of America’s preferreds extended their run of activity, a market source confirmed, spurred on last Wednesday when the company announced the upcoming redemption of all of its fixed-to-floating rate non-cumulative series M preferred stock and a portion of its fixed-to-floating rate non-cumulative series K preferred stock.

The series K preferreds were in high volume but remained unchanged at $25.66. The series C preferreds lost 9 cents to close at $25.94.

Wells Fargo slides

Another major bank, Wells Fargo, saw losses in many of its preferred shares amid an overall down day for the preferred market.

“They were some of the most active, but there wasn’t a lot behind it,” a trader said. “There are a lot of stocks taking the brunt of the volatility in the common market, and these is some of them.”

The series X preferreds lost 19 cents to close at $24.66. The O series preferreds fell 5 cents to close at $24.56.

Indices down

The Wells Fargo Hybrid & Preferred Securities Financial index closed down 0.16%, recovering somewhat after being down 0.31% in morning trading.

The iShares US Preferred Stock ETF fell $0.14 to close at $37.14.

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