Monday's Financial Winners & Losers

Updated from 1:22 p.m. EDT

Financial stocks bounced higher than the climbing broader market Monday, with Ohio Casualty (OCAS Quote) racking up some of the biggest gains overall.

The Fairfield, Ohio, insurer soared 29.6% in furious trading after agreeing to sell itself to Liberty Mutual for $44 a share in cash. The deal, valued around $2.7 billion, is expected to close in the third quarter. Shares gained $9.85 to $43.17.

Los Angeles-based Mercury General (MCY Quote), another insurer, spiked 4.4% to $57.57 after saying first-quarter income totaled $60.5 million, or $1.11 a share, excluding items. This handily beats the Street's $1.05 per-share estimates, according to Thomson Financial.

Mercury had a hand in lifting the NYSE Financial Sector Index -- which rose 28.5 points, or 0.3%, to 9,907.7 -- as did fellow component Irwin Financial (IFC Quote). The Indiana-based bank rose 29 cents, or 1.7%, to $17 after posting a narrower-than-expected continuing-operations loss for the first quarter.

Among the scarce financial losers Monday, U.S. Global Investors (GROW Quote) slid 17% after reporting dwindling first-quarter profits -- $2.4 million, or 16 cents a share -- compared with last year's 17 cents a share. Shares of the Texas-based asset manager lost $4.73 to $23.16.

And Dutch banking giant ABN Amro (ABN Quote) shed 2.1% to $48.83 after rejecting a recent $24.5 billion rival bid for its LaSalle Bank unit from a group led by Royal Bank of Scotland. ABN has already agreed to sell LaSalle to Bank of America (BAC Quote) for $21 billion.

BofA, a KBW Bank Index component, added 18 cents to $51.42 as the index gained 0.3% to 117.78.