While the banking sectors still faces increased regulatory pressures and continued pressure on net interest margins in today’s low interest rate environment banks stock outperformed the S&P 500 during the quarter. After bottoming in early June, the third quarter of 2012 generally saw the U.S. equities market embark on a summer rally that propelled most stocks higher in July and August with a decline late in the month. The S&P 500 posted an increase for the quarter, 5.8%, increasing by 2.4% in September. The S&P 500 is up approximately 14.6% during the first nine months of 2012. However, the SNL Bank Index increased by 7.6% during the third quarter after decreasing by 9.7% in the second quarter of 2012, leaving it up by approximately 25.1% during the first nine months of 2012.
More information regarding nationwide M&A activity can be found here.