Yahoo Finance Investment-Grade Corporate Bond Issuance Rose in October
Why Did Investment-Grade Bond Issuance Rise in October?
Deals and volumes
There were investment-grade corporate bonds worth $132.6 billion issued in the primary market in October 2015. The investment-grade corporate bond issuance rose 17.4% from the previous month. The number of issuers rose to 86 in October from 77 in September.
The monthly return, from September 30 to October 30, of the American Century Diversified Bond Fund – Class A (ADFAX) rose by 0.19%
Major issuers
Microsoft (MSFT), Goldman Sachs (GS), EDF SA, Fidelity National Information Services (FIS), and PepsiCo (PEP) were some of the biggest issuers of investment-grade bonds in October 2015.
Issuance by quality and maturity
Fixed-rate issues formed 95.7% of the total issuance in October. There were floating-rate issues worth $6.4 billion raised in October.
Regarding the credit ratings, BBB-rated issuers were the most prolific. They accounted for 38.5%, or $57.325 billion, of the total issuance. A-rated issuers were next. They formed 30.0% of the month’s issuance. AAA-rated papers formed 22.2% of the total issuance.
In terms of maturity, the largest chunk of the issuance, accounting for 30.8% of all the issues, was in the five-year maturity category. The ten-year maturity category was next. It accounted for 22.6% of the total issuance. The three-year maturity category accounted for 19.9% of the total issuance.
The long-term maturity categories like the 30-year and greater than 30-year accounted for 13.5% and 3.9%, respectively, of the total issuance. Perpetuals didn’t see any issuance in October.
In the next part of the series, we’ll highlight the major deals including the pricing, credit rating, and yields.
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