Financial Winners & Losers: MBIA
Financial guarantors and defied gravity Monday, after several reported heavy losses but managed to lift higher in afternoon trading, bringing the financial sector along with them.
Bond insurer
MBIA
(MBI) - Get Report
posted a $2.41 billion loss in the first quarter, as it recorded billions in unrealized losses due to the credit market deterioration. The Armonk, N.Y.-based company's shares jumped 5.3% to $9.93.
Radian Group
(RDN) - Get Report
enjoyed unrealized gains of $707 million on its derivatives, pushing its net income to $195 million. But excluding those gains, the company suffered an operating loss $215 million. The stock climbed 21 cents, or 3.9%, to $5.64.
PMI Group
( PMI) shares rallied after the mortgage insurer said it lost $274 million due partly to a markdown in the value of its stake in the Financial Guaranty Insurance Co. and to a rise in claims payments. Shares were up 14 cents to $6.11.
HSBC Holdings
(HBC)
ticked up 3% after its business in Asia, the Middle East and Latin America offset its bad-debt charges from the U.S. The good news was that the bad debt charges were lower than expected and so the market rallied behind the stock and it gained $2.50 to $86.57.
But the big winner of the day was
Stifel Financial
(SF) - Get Report
which shot up 13.1% after it informed the market of its 62% increase in first quarter profits. Revenue was driven upward by last year's acquisition of Ryan Beck. The regional brokerage based out of St. Louis also announced a three-for-two stock split and the shares responded favorably by rocketing up $6.14 to $53.04.
The
NYSE
Financial Sector Index advanced 92.91 to 7,676.27.
On the flip side, shares of
IndyMac Bancorp
( IMB) slumped after the mortgage lender wrote down the value of its mortgage-backed securities and said it did not expect to have a profitable quarter in 2008. The market punished the lender selling off the stock by 9.9% to $3.09.