NEWS IN BRIEF

Arvest completes its buy of 29 banks

Arvest Bank on Monday said it completed the acquisition of 29 Bank of America locations in four states.

The Fayetteville-based bank, which has $13.2 billion in assets, said in a news release that the deal closed March 22. The terms of the deal weren’t made public.

Arvest purchased 18 branch locations owned by Bank of America and the lease obligations for 11 other branch locations.

The deal includes most checking, savings and individual-retirement accounts and certificates of deposit, but not credit card, mortgage, brokerage or trust accounts.

Announced in mid-December, the deal includes nine branches in Arkansas - four in Hot Springs, two in Russellville and one each in Hot Springs Village, Harrison, and Mountain Home.

  • John Magsam

Amtrak train adds Hope stop in April

Amtrak’s Texas Eagle will begin providing service to the city of Hope starting April 4, the passenger rail company said in a news release.

The west-bound Eagle is to depart Hope at 5:09 a.m. daily with arrivals at Texas cities the same morning in Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin and San Antonio. The east-bound Texas Eagle is to depart Hope at 9:18 p.m. nightly with arrival in Little Rock that night, St. Louis the following morning and Chicago that afternoon.

The Hope station is unstaffed but passengers can buy tickets and make reservations using Amtrak eTicketing, and boarding documents can be self printed.

Amtrak said sample ticket fares for adults each way will be as low as $18 to Little Rock; $39 to Dallas and Fort Worth; $66 to St. Louis; and $106 to Chicago.

  • Steve Painter

Arkansas stocks up 0.64 to 272.23

The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, rose 0.64 to 272.23 on Monday.

“Stocks dropped after a last-minute bailout for Cyprus ignited concerns that deposits across Europe could become future targets of international creditors. Arkansas equities fared slightly better than the broad market averages with advancing issues outpacing declining stocks by a three to two margin,” said Bob Williams, senior vice president and managing director of Delta Trust Investments Inc. of Little Rock. “Bank of the Ozarks, Home Bancshares, Acxiom, and JB Hunt which comprise four of the 16 stocks in the Arkansas Composite Index established new 52 week highs during the session.”

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 23 on 03/26/2013

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