E*Trade Shares Close at Session Low

Updated with latest share price and analyst comments .

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- E*Trade Financial (ETFC) shares finished at their session low Thursday on heavy volume, pulling back in the wake of persistent speculation about the potential for a merger with fellow online broker TD Ameritrade (AMTD).

E*Trade shares closed at $1.63, down 6 cents, or 3.6%, on volume of nearly 135 million, well above the issue's three-month daily average of 100.2 million. The stock ran in range of $1.63 to $1.75 for the day. On Wednesday, the stock gained more than 9% and 133 million shares changed hands, the majority in the last 45 minutes of trading, after reports of comments from TD Ameritrade CEO Fred Tomczyk about that company's interest in acquiring E*Trade surfaced.

The mixed performance in Thursday's less frenetic session was fueled in part by TD Ameritrade's disclosure of plans to sell an as yet undetermined amount of senior debt in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company's midday filing lists the use of proceeds as paying down its existing senior secured term loan facilities. As of Nov. 18, the company had roughly $1.4 billion in outstanding senior borrowings, according to the filing. E*Trade shares pushed into positive territory in midday action after news of the filing surfaced but later sold off.

TD Ameritrade shares finished at $21.04, off 1.1%.

David Trone, an analyst at Fox Pitt Kelton Cochran Caronia Waller, says in note to clients Thursday that a sale of E*Trade's brokerage arm to Ameritrade would "unlock significant value."