Wednesday's Financial Winners & Losers

Updated from 1:46 p.m. EDT

Most financial stocks stayed afloat Wednesday, cheered by assorted good news and the climbing major indices.

The NYSE Financial Sector Index and the KBW Bank Index added 0.4% and 0.3%, respectively, as the former was helped along by gains at MetLife (MET Quote). The New York-based life insurer tacked on 1.9% to $69.83 on word it will buy back up to another $1 billion of its shares as soon as it finishes repurchasing the roughly $240 million left from its current authorization.

One of the sector's biggest price gainers was Life Partners Holdings (LPHI Quote), which deals in the secondary life-insurance market. The Texas-based company said it made $4.3 million, or 46 cents a share, in the fiscal second quarter -- a huge leap from last year's $220,000, or 2 cents a share. Shares lately jumped 7.7% to $37.88.

Elsewhere, Nasdaq Stock Market (NDAQ Quote) and Borse Dubai said they've secured 47.6% of OMX's shares through various means, bringing the pair closer to realizing the three-way deal they struck last week for Nasdaq's ultimate ownership of the Nordic exchange.

Additionally, Borse Dubai has raised its total bid for OMX by some $649 million to $4.91 billion (31.97 billion Swedish kronor), with Nasdaq bumping up the cash portion of its deal to buy Borse Dubai's OMX shares by $185 million to about $1.93 billion. Borse Dubai also cut the agreement's minimum acceptance level to 50% from 90%.

Nasdaq's shares were lately up $1.26, or 3.5%, to $37.52.