Wednesday's Financial Winners & Losers

Updated from 2:35 p.m. EDT

The financial sector moved higher in concert with the broad indices Wednesday to erase some of Tuesday's losses, and Lehman Brothers (LEH Quote) was once again among the bigger winners.

Lehman shares spiked 2.4% to $77.87 after Goldman Sachs upped its price target by $4 to $91 following yesterday's big earnings beat. The analyst cited strength in the New York firm's investment banking and equities trading, as well as investors' overblown pessimism regarding possible negative effects of the struggling mortgage market.

Lehman lent support to the NYSE Financial Sector Index along with Bear Stearns (BSC Quote), which ran up 2.4% ahead of its Thursday earnings release. The index added 1.4% to 9782.99.

Also propping up the tracker were Citibank (C Quote), up 2.1%; UBS (UBS Quote), up 1.3%; Morgan Stanley (MS Quote), up 2.9%; and Deutsche Bank (DB Quote), up 1.7% -- despite getting communally hit with indictments in an Italian court for their role in the 2003 collapse of dairy company Parmalat, as reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Citibank likewise helped to boost the KBW Bank Index, as did Bank of New York (BK Quote) and J.P. Morgan Chase (JPM Quote), which respectively rose 4.5% and 1.9%. The index was up 1.8% at 116.20 to outpace the broader market, as its big-bank components drew sharp benefits from easing bond yields.

By contrast, IntercontinentalExchange (ICE Quote) spent most of the day in the red after the futures-and-commodities exchange sweetened its hostile bid for the Chicago Board of Trade (BOT Quote). Among other changes, the ICE is now offering CBOT holders a cash option worth up to $2.5 billion, instead of the all-stock bid it initially proposed.

ICE gave back $1.20 to $147.78. CBOT shares traded actively and closed up 49 cents to $201.50. Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME Quote), whose own merger proposal with the CBOT was recently approved by the Justice Department, also traded actively, closing up $2.75 to $551.25.