Wells Trounced BofA in November

Steering clear of Europe and MBS paid off for Wells.
By Dan Freed ,

NEW YORK (

TheStreet

) --

Wells Fargo

(WFC) - Get Report

was the leader, while

Bank of America

(BAC) - Get Report

brought up the rear in terms of stock price performance for the biggest six U.S. banks in November.

Wells Fargo saw its shares rise 4.41% during the month to close at $27.21. Though the bank faced scrutiny from investors in October over its exposure to potential legal challenges related to allegedly sloppy foreclosure practices, Wells Fargo refused to halt foreclosures, saying its procedures were sound. The bank stood in contrast to other big mortgage lenders like Bank of America and

JPMorgan Chase

(JPM) - Get Report

, which acknowledged problems with their foreclosure practices and temporarily stopped taking back homes from borrowers it determined were in default. (Both banks have since resumed foreclosures.)

Citigroup

(C) - Get Report

the fourth-largest U.S. home lender behind Wells Fargo, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, also defended its foreclosure procedures and refused to stop taking over homes from defaulted borrowers. Citigroup shares rose 0.72% on the month, making it the only bank among the big six, aside from Wells, that saw share gains in November.

Wells Fargo appeared to benefit from a lack of exposure to mortgage backed securities "putbacks"--another big issue for Bank of America--as well as the fact that it does essentially no business in Europe.

Morgan Stanley

(MS) - Get Report

,

Goldman Sachs

(GS) - Get Report

and

JPMorgan Chase

(JPM) - Get Report

, all of which are thought to have greater exposure than Wells Fargo on both fronts, dropped 1.64%, 3.1% and 0.61%, respectively.

But none of those institutions could match the bad juju of Bank of America, shares of which closed out the month by falling to their

lowest level since May 2009

amid fears it would be the next target of

Wikileaks

. Bank of America shares lost 4.36% last month.

--

Written by Dan Freed in New York

.

Disclosure: TheStreet's editorial policy prohibits staff editors, reporters and analysts from holding positions in any individual stocks.

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