Friday's Financial Winners & Losers

Pessimistic analysts helped weigh on financial stocks Friday.

Author:: Debra Borchardt
Publish date:: Apr 4, 2008 4:39 PM EDT

Bank analysts held sway over the market Friday, as gloomy outlooks dragged down most bank stocks.

Keefe, Bruyette and Woods analyst cut earnings estimates on 19 regional banks by a median of 5.6%, as credit markets and residential mortgage markets continue to wreak havoc on banks profits. Shares of

First Horizon

(FHN) - Get Report

fell $1.03, or 7% to close at $13.63, hitting a new 52-week low. First Horizon is facing mounting loss reserves as non-performing assets increase.

Other losing banks included

Imperial Capital Bancorp

(IMP)

, which plunged 9.1% to $20.38 and

Frontier Financial

(FTBK)

, which slipped 9.2% to $18.17.

A JPMorgan Chase analyst cut his 2008 earnings estimates for

Citigroup

Bank of America

(BAC) - Get Report

and

Wachovia

(WB) - Get Report

, sending the national banks downward. BofA shares fell 96 cents to $39.41. Shares of Wachovia fell $1.16, or 4.1%, to $27.21.

Citigroup, like BofA and Wachovia, also faces further writedowns in the first quarter, the analyst wrote in the note. Media reports on Friday said Citi was preparing a $4.5 billion five-year note sale. The bank's shares, however, dipped only 28 cents to $24.08.

Other national banks fell in tandem.

Washington Mutual

(WM) - Get Report

plummeted $1.32, or 11.5%, to $10.17.

In other banking news,

Fifth Third Bancorp

(FITB) - Get Report

is the latest name to surface as a possible buyer for struggling

National City

(NCC)

. Fifth Third ticked up 16 cents to $22.71, while Nat City dropped another 80 cents to $8.99.

The KBW Bank Index was down 2.2% to 82.46. The

NYSE

Financial Sector Index closed down 65.26 to 7,638.15.

On the positive side, futures broker

MF Global

(MF)

shot up for the second day in a row to $12.25, a gain of 6.8%. The Bermuda-based company is pursuing financing alternatives that could include the sale of a minority stake in the company or the issuing of longer-term debt, but not a full acquisition of the company, according to

The Wall Street Journal

. The firm has hired investment bank Lazard to help it with the process.