Archive for November, 2006

November 2, 2006

Thursday, November 2nd, 2006

Not only do I have to do the rebalancing for November month-end, but a lot of things have been piling up this week to soak away my time! I will do the volume and price change reports tonight, but the index levels will have to wait until tomorrow. Sorry!

Update 2006-11-7

Note that these indices are experimental; the absolute and relative daily values are expected to change in the final version
Index Mean Current Yield (at bid) Mean YTW Mean Average Trading Value Mean Mod Dur (YTW) Issues Day’s Perf. Index Value
Ratchet 4.15% 4.08% 39,965 10.54 2 -0.2611% 1,010.1
Fixed-Floater 4.83% 3.97% 137,276 12.98 7 +0.1140% 1,024.4
Floater 4.52% -18.83% 70,995 6.49 5 +0.2796% 1,024.5
Op. Retract 4.67% 1.30% 84,595 2.29 18 0.0976% 1,023.7
Split-Share 5.04% 3.74% 184,790 3.36 9 -0.1743% 1021.1
Interest Bearing 6.93% 5.52% 58,231 2.43 7 -0.1667% 1,016.4
Perpetual-Premium 5.08% 3.85% 250,223 3.85 49 +0.1257% 1,040.8
Perpetual-Discount 4.58% 4.61% 604,477 16.18 7 +0.1167% 1036.4

End of 2006-11-7 update

Major Price Changes
Issue Index Change Notes
MST.PR.A InterestBearing -2.7333% The underlying interest for this issue is … income trusts! June 30, 2006, the fund had assets of about $127.8-million to cover preferred securities of $53.2-million: asset coverage of 2.40:1. If we have a look at the Capped Income Trust Index ETF (Symbol : XTR), we see it closed at $15.58 on June 30, compared to $13.19 today, a loss of about 15.4%. This would imply net assets of MST.UN of $108-million to cover the $53.2-million prefs … more than 2:1, still quite adequate. No need to panic just quite yet! The YTW is now 5.48% to a maturity on 2009-9-30.
STW.PR.A InterestBearing -1.8646 The underlying interest for this issue is a vehicle called COMPASS … and COMPASS is … an Income Trust Fund! On Jun 30, 2006, this fund had assets of $184-million to cover preferred securities worth $72.4-million : asset coverage of 2.54:1. Reduce assets by 15.4%, as above, estimate assets to be now $155-million. Still in excess of 2.0:1, no need for any throat-cutting. YTW is now 6.16%, based on a 2009-12-31 maturity.
AL.PR.E Floater +1.5578% On zero volume!
ENB.PR.A PerpetualPremium +1.6634% A big bounce back from a steep drop yesterday. At a bid price of $25.67, it is now trading with a YTW of 0.97%, based on a call 2007-1-1 at $25.25. If it survives until its 2008-1-1 call at $25, it will have yielded 3.98%. Given that the issue pays $1.375 and Enbridge can save $0.25 by waiting a year, it may well make it to the later date.
Volume Highlights
Issue Index Volume Notes
CM.PR.G PerpetualPremium 102,735 MacDougall bought 100,000 from RBC (in two tranches: one lot was of 100 shares!) @ 27.05.
GWO.PR.G PerpetualPremium 94,434 RBC sold 20,000 to Desjardins and 63,700 to Scotia, both lots trading at $26.85.
RY.PR.C PerpetualPremium 61,670 A steady day for the new issue: it closed a little better than yesterday at 25.18-22, 3×50
CU.PR.A PerpetualPremium 50,000 The only trade was a purchase by MacDougall of 50,000 @ 27.21 from RBC. It pays $1.45, so the issuer may just wish to call it without taking advantage of the $0.25 p.a. declining premium – if this happens, the 2008-3-31 call will result in a yield of 2.93%.
SLF.PR.D PerpetualDiscount 49,103 Only just on the high-volume charts! The clearance sale is definitely winding down … but how long until the price recovers? If anything, the issue should be priced higher (not much higher!) than SLF.PR.C, which closed 40-ish cents better than SLF.PR.D.

There were six other index-included issues trading over 10,000 shares today.

BAM.PR.G Change of Terms

Wednesday, November 1st, 2006

The BAM.PR.G change of terms has been processed on HIMIPref™: the old security code was A41216, the new code is A41219.

RY.PR.C Off to a Fine Start!

Wednesday, November 1st, 2006

The new Royal Bank 4.6% perpetuals were off to a good start today, trading 239,875 shares in a range of 25.15-25 to close at $25.16-18, 3×13.

The reorg entry has been processed on HIMIPref™: the pre-issue code was P50006, the new security code is A45012.

I’ll update this post with some comments about valuation when I update HIMIPref™ with today’s closing quotations later tonight.

Update : The issue still looks attractive at the closing quotation. Consider the YTWs of the other Royal Perpetual issues that are outstanding (except for the soon to be redeemed RY.PR.O:

Issue Pre-tax YTW Quote “Taxable Curve” Price
RY.PR.A 4.47% 24.84-91 24.97
RY.PR.B 4.30% 25.70-75 25.83
RY.PR.C 4.54% 25.16-18 25.59
RY.PR.W 4.07% 26.27-55 25.89

So, it’s my guess there’s still a little value left in this issue!