Financial Winners and Losers: BofA

Financial stocks were trading lower Tuesday on a flurry of news, including the sale of Bank of America's stake in China Construction Bank.

Author:: Robert Holmes
Publish date:: May 12, 2009 4:32 PM EDT

Financial stocks were trading lower Tuesday on a flurry of news, including the sale of Bank of America's stake in China Construction Bank.

Updated from 1:46 p.m. EDT

Bank stocks lost ground for second consecutive session Tuesday on news of more capital-raising moves by

Bank of America

(BAC) - Get Report

and

Bank of New York Mellon

(BK) - Get Report

Bank of America raised $7.3 billion from the sale of its stake in

China Construction Bank

, according to reports. A consortium that includes Temasek Holdings, Hopu Investment Management and China Life Insurance

purchased the shares

for a discount,

The Wall Street Journal

and

Bloomberg

reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

After opening higher, BofA shares lost 5.3% to close at $12.26.

Meanwhile, Bank of New York Mellon became the latest bank to announce a common stock offering in order to repay funds borrowed from the Troubled Asset Relief Program. The bank raised $1.2 billion after pricing 42 million shares at $28.75, it said Tuesday. The dilutive effect pressured shares, which finished lower by 3.8% to $28.43.

On Monday,

U.S. Bancorp

(USB) - Get Report

KeyCorp

(KEY) - Get Report

Capital One Financial

(COF) - Get Report

and

BB&T

(BBT) - Get Report

each announced stock sales, pressuring the financial sector.

Principal Financial

(PFG) - Get Report

, which was hit hard after announcing its own common stock offering Monday, fell another 3% despite an upgrade from Credit Suisse. The firm upped its rating on Principal to neutral from underperform and nearly doubled its price target to $23 based on improving liquidity position following equity offering.

Elsewhere,

Citigroup

said that the $45 billion in government capital it has borrowed has been used to make nearly that much in new loans. Shares slipped 5.2% to $3.66.

Other bank stocks were also performing poorly.

Wells Fargo

(WFC) - Get Report

fell 3.1%, and

JPMorgan Chase

(JPM) - Get Report

slid 1.3%. Among regional banks,

Regions Financial

(RF) - Get Report

dropped 9.6%, and

SunTrust Banks

(STI) - Get Report

gave back 12.4%.

On the earnings front,

MBIA

(MBI) - Get Report

reported results late Monday that handily beat expectations. After surging in the premarket session, the stock tumbled 11.8% to close at $6.14.

Morgan Stanley

(MS) - Get Report

named Gary Lynch to the position of vice chairman. Lynch will retain his position as Morgan's chief legal officer, which he has held since joining the firm in October 2005. Morgan shares overcame a weak start to finish 1.3% higher at $26.42.