Wednesday's Financial Winners & Losers

Updated from 2:02 p.m. EDT

The financial sector was flush with winners Wednesday as reams of upbeat earnings news kept the industry largely in step with the rest of the climbing market.

MasterCard (MA Quote), most notably, leapt 10% to $126.35 after the credit-card company flattened first-quarter Wall Street estimates. The Purchase, N.Y., firm said it made 67% more than last year at $1.57 a share on revenue that surged 23.9% to $915 million. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial sought $1.16 a share on $842.37 million in revenue.

These numbers helped lift the NYSE Financial Sector Index, of which MasterCard is a component, by 75.49 points, or 0.7=8%, to 9,815.21. The KBW Bank Index, which tracks large banks, was up only 0.3% at 116.64, lagging behind the broader market.

Elsewhere, a number of insurers and health care names issued positive results, among them Molina Healthcare (MOH Quote), shares of which shot up 10.6% to $32.84 after coming in 4 cents above Wall Street's 30-cent per-share target. Life-insurance behemoth MetLife (MET Quote) gained 1.4% to $66.77 on a 13-cent EPS beat, and Infinity Property and Casualty (IPCC Quote) was 12 cents ahead. Its shares jumped 10.9%, or $5.15, to $52.43.

Life insurer Lincoln National (LNC Quote) added 1.8% to $72.05 on better-than-expected top- and bottom-line results in the first quarter, and likewise for Dollar Financial (DLLR Quote), which jumped 8.5% to $31.14.