NEWS IN BRIEF

— Arvest Bank’s purchase of 29 Bank of America branches, which was announced in December, will close March 22, the Fayetteville bank says.

Most of the branches will open March 25 as Arvest branches.

The 29 branches are in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Kansas.

The Bank of America branches in Arkansas that were acquired by Arvest consist of four in Hot Springs, two in Russellville and one each in Harrison, Hot Springs Village and Mountain Home. There were 15 branches acquired in Missouri, four in Oklahoma and one in Kansas.

The transaction leaves Bank of America with 27 branches in Arkansas. The purchase gives Arvest almost 130 branches in the state. The acquisition has received regulatory approval.

  • David Smith

Summer grass seed

to be sought after

Seed for summer forages, including sorghum, sudangrass, millet and crabgrass is expected to be in high demand this spring as landowners work to restore fields damaged by last year’s drought.

That means Arkansas cattle producers should buy their seed as early as possible, according to John Jennings, professor-forage specialist for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.

Jennings said in a release that seed suppliers in Kansas, Oklahoma and other parts of the Southwest have also suffered from drought for the past two years, which has cut into seed production.

More information about cattle forage is available by contacting county extension offices or by going online to www.arkansaslivestock.com or www.

uaex.edu.

  • Glen Chase

Arkansas Index up on market optimism

The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, climbed 3.04 to 266.47 Tuesday.

The index traded at its all-time high of 266.55 during the day.

“The major market indicators rose amid optimism over corporate merger and acquisition activity taking the Dow Jones industrial average and the Standard & Poor’s 500 to five-year highs,” said Bob Williams, senior vice president and managing director of Delta Trust Investments Inc. in Little Rock. “Arkansas stocks were actively traded, with advancing issues outpacing declining shares by three to one.”

Volume for the index was 42.7 million shares, compared with average daily volume of 23.3 million shares.

The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.

Business, Pages 26 on 02/20/2013

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