Financial Winners & Losers: MBIA

MBIA posted a big first-quarter loss, but rallied anyway. So did the financial sector.
By Debra Borchardt ,

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.

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