Financial Winners & Losers: MasterCard

A bullish outlook from the electronic payment processor helped lift financials.
By Debra Borchardt ,

MasterCard's

(MA) - Get Report

bullish outlook helped buoy financial stocks Thursday.

The electronic payment processor's shares jumped 7.9% after the company said it expected double-digit net revenue growth in 2008 said that strong gross dollar volume growth worldwide led to the positive expectations. Shares gained $22.61 to $309.50.

A selloff in oil also helped propel financial stocks upward. The

NYSE

Financial Sector index advanced 72.32 to 7,368.34.

Countrywide Financial

( CFC) climbed 8.2% to $5.39 after the

Securities and Exchange Commission

declared effective a registration of 132.8 million shares of

Bank of America

(BAC) - Get Report

to be issued as consideration in the companies' merger. Rumors have persisted that the deal might not go through, but the registration demonstrates that the plan is progressing.

Stock in the fallen brokerage

Bear Stearns

( BSC) rose 1.8% to $9.55 after shareholders approved its sale to

JPMorgan Chase

(JPM) - Get Report

. JPMorgan shares ticked up 1.7% to $43.57.

Banks seemed to be responding well to an analyst's upgrades on some select names.

SunTrust Bank

(STI) - Get Report

was upgraded by a Stifel Nicolaus analyst to a buy based on valuation. The Atlanta-based bank gained $1.92 to $52.96.

A Stern Agee analyst initiated coverage of

Comerica

(CMA) - Get Report

with a buy rating, despite placing a negative outlook on large-cap banks. The regional bank based out of Texas, shot up 3.8% to $37. The analyst also initiated a buy rating on

National City

( NCC), but the stock limped along in mixed trading only lately sliding down eight cents to $5.68.

The losers on the day were companies associated with student loans.

Sallie Mae

(SLM) - Get Report

slipped 3 cents to $23.40 and

First Marblehead

(FMD)

gave back 13 cents to trade at $3.33.

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