Bank of America: Capital Strength Winner

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Bank of America (BAC) was the big winner among the largest U.S. banks on Friday, with shares rising 4% to close at $12.57.

The broad indices all retreated, after the Federal Reserve released economic figures that showed strengthening economic growth. The Federal Reserve said U.S. industrial output rose by 0.7% in February, following an upwardly revised level, to unchanged, in January. Economists on average expected production in February to rise by 0.4%, according to Zacks.

The industrial capacity utilization rate in February rose to 79.6% in February, the highest level since March 2008. The February reading was higher than the upwardly revised 79.2% in January and the consensus estimate of 79.3%.

The KBW Bank Index (I:BKX) was up slightly to close at 57.52, with all but 15 of the 24 index components showing gains for the session.

BB&T (BBT) was the banking sector loser on Friday, with shares down over 2% to close at $30.98, after the company's 2013 capital plan was rejected by the Federal Reserve.

The rejection of BB&T's capital plan was based on "a qualitative assessment conducted by the Federal Reserve," the regulator said in its announcement late Thursday of the results of the 2013 Capital Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review, The Fed said it rejected BB&T's plan.

JPMorgan Chase (JPM) saw its shares pull back 2%% to close at $50.02, after the company's capital plan received conditional approval from the Fed. The company announced late on Thursday it would increase its quarterly dividend to 38 cents from 30 cents, and buy back up to $6.0 billion in common shares through the first quarter of 2014. JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs (GS) -- which also received conditional approval of its capital plan, although it announced no additional capita deployment -- will each submit revised capital plans by the end of the third quarter.

For JPMorgan, Friday was quite a busy day, in the wake of the release of a bombshell report by Senate Subcommittee on Investigations on the company's "London Whale" hedge trading losses totaling at least $6.2 billion last year.

During the subcommittee hearing on Friday, former JPMorgan Chief Investment Office head Ina Drew placed the blame for the losses on her former traders and a flawed risk model.

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