Stock sales spree a bonanza for banks

NEW YORK: JPMorgan Chase & Co and Morgan Stanley are emerging as the top beneficiaries of the biggest boom in US secondary offering activity, stoked by banks' rush to sell stock after government "stress tests".

May saw the biggest ever US follow-on activity, based on proceeds, with $39.2 billion so far this month across all industries, based on Thomson Reuters data. The second largest was in October last year with $26.1 billion.

Banks collected $1 billion of fees from underwriting US equity issues in the first two weeks of May alone, compared with $1.2 billion for the entire first four months of the year, according to the data.