It's been a pretty awful Thursday for the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) so far today. At the time of writing, the ASX 200 has fallen by a nasty 1.12% to back under 7,180 points. But let's talk about the Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Ltd (ASX: BEN) share price.
Normally, when you see a substantial fall in the ASX 200 Index, you can usually bet that the ASX 200 bank shares are at least partially responsible.
That's because the big four banks – Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA), Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC), National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX: NAB) and ANZ Group Holdings Ltd (ASX: ANZ) – together account for around 19% of the entire ASX 200's weighting. As well as four out of the top six spots on the ASX 200.
Lo and behold, we can see that this is bearing out today. At present, CBA shares are down 1.03%. The Westpac share price has lost 0.61%, while NAB has slipped by 0.82%. ANZ leads the losses with its horrid 1.54% drop.
Yet the Bendigo Bank share price is currently in the green, presently enjoying a 0.68% boost up to $8.92 a share.
So what's going on with Bendigo Bank shares here? Why is this ASX bank share smashing the big four today?
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Why is the Bendigo Bank share price smashing the other ASX 200 banks today?
Well, it's not clear, unfortunately. There was an announcement out of Bendigo Bank this morning. This related to the bank's $275 million batch of subordinated notes that were due on 30 November 2028. Bendigo Bank has decided to redeem and pay out all of these notes on 30 November, subject to regulatory approval.
It's not clear why the bank has taken this move, but arguably indicates that Bendigo Bank's finances are in a healthy place. So it's possible that this is influencing investors on the markets this Thursday.
There is another development to note as well. In addition to the Bendigo Bank share price's outsized performance today, we also saw a positive move with the Bank of Queensland Ltd (ASX: BOQ) share price during morning trade today. After being up a rosy 0.44% to $5.64 each, BOQ shares are current trading at $5.61.
We haven't had any news out of BoQ either. But the fact that these two smaller ASX banks are rising while the big four are dropping could indicate that investors are making a bit of a play here.
Both the Bendigo and BoQ share prices have been laggards over 2023 to date compared with the other big four banks. To illustrate, the Bendigo Bank share price remains down 8.84% in 2023 so far, while the CBA share price has lost 0.44%. NAB shares are down 3.1%, while ANZ has gained 7.3%.
So maybe investors think that the Bendigo Bank share price is due for an uptick. Whatever the reason, it's certainly been a good day to own Bendigo Bank shares.
Right now, the Bendigo Bank share price gives this ASX 200 bank share a dividend yield of 6.84%.
