NEW YORK, May 15 (Reuters) - Follow-on share issuance in the United States continued at a torrid clip for a second straight week, with deals reaching $15.1 billion for the week ended Friday, as banks sought to recapitalize and companies across sectors took advantage of rising stock prices.

The busy week for follow-ons, also known as secondary offerings, came on the heels of $18.9 billion in stock issues last week, the most hectic since late September 2008 soon after the financial crisis erupted, according to Thomson Reuters.

Follow-ons are additional shares issued by already public companies.

"A lot of them were by banks raising funds to hopefully repay TARP," said Scott Sweet, a senior managing partner of advisory firm IPO Boutique, which also tracks follow-ons. TARP refers to the U.S. government's investment in distressed firms.

Follow-ons across sectors have been priced at significant enough discounts to entice investors looking for bargains in anticipation of stocks rising further, said Sweet.

This week's deals were led by large financial companies such as US Bancorp (USB.N: Quote, Profile, Research), which sold $2.5 billion in new stock, and Capital One Financial Corp (COF.N: Quote, Profile, Research) with $1.6 billion.

Other issues included offerings by nonfinancial companies such as Dow Chemical Co (DOW.N: Quote, Profile, Research), with $2.25 billion in new stock, and automaker Ford Motor Co's (F.N: Quote, Profile, Research) $1.6 billion deal.

So far this year follow-ons have raised $61.2 billion, 33 percent more than the amount in the United States at this point last year, and 44 times greater than total U.S. IPO proceeds.

Despite a tentative reawakening in the markets, IPOs in dollar terms are down 93 percent so far in 2009, with five deals with proceeds of $1.4 billion, including the $279.3 million raised by satellite image company DigitalGlobe Inc (DGI.N: Quote, Profile, Research) on Wednesday.