NEW YORK (

TheStreet

) -- Financial stocks firmly led into the black on Tuesday, fueled by M&A.

The

Financial Select Sector SPDR

(XLF) - Get Report

rose 1.6% to $15.79.

Large-cap firms including

American Express

(AXP) - Get Report

,

AIG

(AIG) - Get Report

,

Capital One Financial

(COF) - Get Report

and

JPMorgan Chase

(JPM) - Get Report

were among financial stocks outperforming on Tuesday.

TD Bank

(TD) - Get Report

agreed to acquire Chrysler Financial from Cerberus Capital Management for $6.3 billion. The

bank is looking opportunistically for further deals in the U.S.

However, it was regional bank stocks that stood out. The

Keefe Bruyette & Woods Regional Bank Index

(KRE) - Get Report

was up 2.6% at last check, to $25.94.

Winners in the sector included

Boston Private Holdings

( BPRH),

Associated Ban-corp

(ASBC)

,

Astoria Financial

(AF)

,

Cardinal Financial

(CFNL)

and

East West Bancorp

(EWBC) - Get Report

.

Webster Financial

(WBS) - Get Report

shares were rising 1.4% to $18.74 after the Northeast regional bank priced a common stock offering of 6.63 million shares at $18 a pop. The proceeds will be used to repurchase preferred shares held by the U.S. Treasury Department under the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Webster follows in the footsteps of other regional banks in recent days looking to get out from the government's grasp including

Huntington Bancshares (HBAN) - Get Report

and

First Horizon

(FHN) - Get Report

.

Financial losers of the day included

MasterCard (MA) - Get Report,

down 1.7% to $219.83 and

BankAtlantic Bancorp (BBX) - Get Report

, down 12% to $1.07.

-- Written by Laurie Kulikowski in New York.

To contact the writer of this article, click here:

Laurie Kulikowski

.

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