Chris Hall of BMO Capital Markets Says Munis "Went Pretty Quickly From Hate to Love"

Nov. 4, 2008 - PRLog -- MuniMarket Pulse, a podcast of DerivActiv, LLC, recently spoke with Chris Hall, Head of Underwriting at BMO Capital Markets on the recent rally in the municipal market after a protracted sell-off.  To listen to the podcast episode or download the transcript, visit: http://podcast.derivactiv.com/?display=148.

During the podcast, host Johan Rosenberg, CEO of DerivActiv, LLP explored with Mr. Hall the changes in the market that have caused municipal issuers to finally take their deals off the shelf and how retail sales continue to be the biggest market-driver.

Asked if the retail buyers have always been active, Mr. Hall said “while it's true to say that retail has been in all along. It's also true that over the last week that retail has really helped the muni market, get back on its feet. I think probably as far as the street trades and so forth are concerned…folks who are stepping up and gunning this market in large part, not entirely, but in large part, are retail.”

After several weeks of inactivity in the primary bond market, it appeared that municipal bonds were finally making a comeback.  Host Rosenberg asked how munis became the pretty girl everybody wanted to date? According to Hall, “I'm not exactly sure that there's any one cause. We have to keep in mind how cheap munis were against any historical evaluation. Whether you want to talk about percentages of treasuries, spreads to other assets, however you want to judge the relative value, munis were really, really, really attractive,” and a major reason why they were of interest to the retail market.

Rosenberg and Hall continue on during the podcast discussing a recent competitive bond sale for the New Mexico Finance Authority and Piper Jaffray’s winning bid.

To listen to the complete podcast episode or download the transcript, visit: http://podcast.derivactiv.com/?display=148.

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