Friday's Financial Winners & Losers

Updated from 12:15 p.m. EDT

Financial stocks leapt higher than the broader market Friday, propelled in part by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and Chicago Board of Trade (BOT).

Both commodities exchanges climbed after CME sweetened its bid for CBOT, agreeing to pay 16% more in stock than that agreed upon in October and to repurchase up to about 12% of the new company's shares for $560 apiece after the deal closes. Current CBOT holders will also own 34.6% of the new company vs. the prior 31.2%.

The CBOT's board moreover said IntercontinentalExchange's (ICE) all-stock rival bid, launched in March, was "not superior" to the CME's revised offer. CME was up 7.7% to $536.30, and CBOT added 3.8% to $201.35. ICE lately rose 4.2% to $140.55.

The NYSE Financial Sector Index, of which all three exchanges are components, surged 126.95 points, or 1.3%, to 9894.82. The KBW Bank Index, which only tracks large banks, was more in line with the rest of the market, adding 0.6% to 117.15.

Meanwhile, shares of NovaStar Financial (NFI) spiked 8.2% to $7 after the Missouri-based subprime-mortgage lender reported that first-quarter earnings rose sharply from last year to $44.4 million, or $1.18 a share, compared with 69 cents last year. The climb was largely due to NovaStar's plan to end its status as a real estate investment trust as of Jan. 1, 2008, which brought in a one-time tax-related gain of $84.2 million.