BofA: Financial Winners and Losers

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Bank of America (BAC Quote) was among the winners of the financial sector Wednesday after the bank's stock was upgraded to outperform.

Bank of America was up 1.7% after Wells Fargo raised its rating for the bank's stock to outperform from market perform, arguing that BofA shares currently trade at the deepest discount to normalized earnings-per-share level of every bank on the firm's coverage list.

Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal reports that BofA's search for a new CEO has narrowed to two internal candidates, Chief Risk Officer Gregory Curl and Brian Moynihan, BofA's consumer and small-business banking chief. The report added that the bank's board is still keeping its eyes open for a new chief outside the company.

In other bank news, Citigroup (C Quote) is leaning toward selling its energy-trading unit Phibro to raise money and deflect political anger over a potential $100 million payout to Phibro's star trader Andrew Hall, according to a report in The Financial Times.

The decision by Citigroup to completely divest itself of the division followed debates on whether it should divest just part of the unit, open it up to outside investors or spin it off, the report notes. Citigroup shares were off 3 cents to $4.64.

Elsewhere, Banco Santander (STD Quote) raised 14.1 billion reals ($8.1 billion) in the initial public offering of its Brazilian operations.

The Brazilian unit sold 600 million shares for 23.50 reals ($13.43) apiece, in what is the biggest initial public offering this year. The price was in the middle of the expected range of 22 reals to 25 reals. The stock was off nearly 3% to $13.03 in recent trades. Banco Santander shares were lately down 1.2% to $16.22.