Oct 31 (Reuters) – U.S. municipal bonds trading in 2017’s third quarter dropped by 21 percent to $661 billion compared to the same period in 2016 and was the lowest par volume since 2016’s first quarter, the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) reported on Tuesday.
The number of trades in the latest quarter rose by 7 percent to 2.29 million with customer purchases accounting for most of the transactions, according to MSRB, the self regulator of the $3.8 trillion market for debt sold by states, cities, schools and other governmental and non-profit issuers.
Customer buying activity fell to an average daily par amount of $5.4 billion in the third quarter from $6.72 billion in the same quarter in 2016, the report said.
The heaviest trading was in Texas tax and revenue anticipation notes due in 2018 with a 4 percent coupon in both par amount and number of trades during the quarter. Other actively traded securities by par amount were Virginia’s Tobacco Settlement Financing Corp bonds due in 2046 with a 6.71 percent coupon and state of Illinois bonds due in 2033 with a 5.10 percent coupon.
Issuers filed 30,869 disclosure documents with the MSRB during the quarter, with bankruptcy and default-related disclosures totaling 37. (Reporting By Karen Pierog; editing by Diane Craft)