AIG: Financial Winners and Losers

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- American International Group (AIG Quote) was among the winners of the financial sector Thursday, a day before the insurer is scheduled to report third-quarter results.

AIG is expected to swing to a profit of $1.20 a share from a year-ago loss of $3.42 a share, when the firm was on the verge of a collapse, according to analysts polled by Thomson Reuters. Year-over-year results are expected to benefit by the improvement in credit conditions.

AIG shares were lately rising by $1.70, or 4.7%, to $37.90.

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Other insurance-related stocks were losing ground. Bond insurers Ambac Financial (ABK Quote) and MBIA (MBI Quote), which both surged Wednesday following Ambac's third-quarter earnings report, were down 16.7% and 7.5%, respectively.

Meanwhile, Hartford Financial (HIG Quote) was losing 3.8% to $23.51, and Allstate (ALL Quote) dropped 6.4% to $27.73 after swinging to a profit that fell short of the Thomson Reuters average estimate.

Bank of Ireland (IRE Quote) was also among the big winners of the day even as the bank's first-half profit dropped 73% from a year ago. Bank of Ireland also said it will transfer loans to the National Asset Management Agency, the government's so-called "bad bank." It warned about uncertainties of the transfer, including the potential the bank would require more government capital.

Despite this, UBS upgraded Bank of Ireland to neutral from sell. Lately, the stock was jumping by $1.23, or 11.9%, to $11.59 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Most U.S. bank stocks were on the rise Thursday. Citigroup (C Quote) rose 1.3% to $4.02, JPMorgan Chase (JPM Quote) was up 1.3% to $42.76, and Bank of America (BAC Quote) tacked on 0.5% to $14.77. Wells Fargo (WFC Quote), meanwhile, slid 0.9% to $26.57.