Muni Market Sees Activity Boost
On May 5, 2016, the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) released their summary statistics of the municipal securities market for the first quarter of 2016. MSRB is a private organization dedicated to protecting investors, municipal entities, and the public by promoting a fair and efficient market through effective regulation and transparency. The market seems to have improved in terms of overall activity.
Here are some of the highlights provided by the MSRB:
- Par Amount Traded
- Q1 2016: $634.7 billion
- Q4 2015: $507.3 billion
- Q1 2015: $618.5 billion
- Total number of trades
- Q1 2016: 2.27 million trades
- 6.5% increase over Q4 2015
- 1.0% increase over Q1 2015
- Q1 2016: 2.27 million trades
- 8% of customer purchases of trades were under $100,000, which is steady from Q1 2015
MuniNet dug a little deeper into the tables, and found some noteworthy highlights. 36.7% of transactions, totaling 29.1% of all trade value, were general obligation source of payment. 6.8% of transactions, totaling 9.2% of all trade value were taxable.
62.9% of the value trades had an average daily par amount over $2 million. The second largest segment were trades valued between $100,001 and $500,000, accounting for 12.0% of all trade value in the first quarter.
Looking at the market by sector, Education was the most active in terms of both total value traded and number of trades. Bonds in the education sector accounted for 25.1% of all trade value, and 27.0% of all trades.
Visit our Municipal Bond Calendar for the latest scheduled issuances of municipal securities. You can also check out our Municipal Bonds page, our NFMA Gateway, and other pages in our Municipal Finance section, for additional insights into muniland. You can click on the hyperlink above to visit MSRB’s website, where you can find the data.
by Jeffrey L Garceau