05 Aug Voya Senior Loan Group – ‘Talking Points’ – Anticipating an Active August, plus July in Review
Voya Senior Loan ‘Talking Points’ is a weekly publication from the Voya Senior Loan Team Heads, which provides key insights and results in the Senior Loan marketplace.
Anticipating an Active August, plus July in Review
The U.S. loan market this week had a busy and solid run amid a rush of new transactions representing both new money and opportunistic deals. The S&P/LSTA Leveraged Loan Index gained 0.13% as the average Index bid rose by six bps to end the week at 98.30.
$23 billion of institutional volume brought plenty of activity to a primary market that remains eager for paper, whilst secondary trading remained reasonably robust as investors prepared for coming allocations springing from the late summer new issue push.
July in Review
The Index gained 0.69% for the month of July, representing the strongest monthly return of 2017 to date. Though June’s 4 bps setback broke a 15-month streak of positive gains, the asset class returned an average of 0.32% per month in the first half of the year. Stronger trading in the secondary market advanced July’s turnaround thanks to a moderation in new primary volume.