Wednesday's Financial Winners & Losers
Updated from 1 p.m. EDT
Financial stocks slumped again Wednesday to mirror the movements of the broader market, but big winners emerged in online brokers
TD Ameritrade
(AMTD) - Get Report
and
E*Trade
(ETFC) - Get Report
.
Ameritrade climbed 3.8% in furious trading after announcing that Jana Partners and SAC Capital Advisors, which have disclosed owning around 8.4% of the company with the intention of acquiring additional shares worth more than $600 million, want Ameritrade immediately to pursue a merger with another broker. The firms specifically named E*Trade and
Charles Schwab
(SCHW) - Get Report
as possibilities.
The firms also stressed that they wish to avoid "interference" by 40% shareholder
Toronto-Dominion Bank
(TD) - Get Report
, which they say "may be standing in the way" of such a merger.
Ameritrade gained 76 cents to $20.71, and E*Trade traded heavily to jump 7.3% at $25.60. Charles Schwab lost 1.1%, and Toronto-Dominion -- a member of the
NYSE
Financial Sector Index -- gave up 0.7%. The index sank 0.9%, or 84.93 points, to 9825.97.
But another component of the index, subprime-mortgage lender
NovaStar Financial
(NFI)
, continued rising today following Tuesday's announcement that the Kansas City, Mo., firm had securitized $1.4 billion in nonconforming mortgage assets. Shares bounced 11% to $9.10.
The KBW Bank Index, which tracks large banks, fell 0.9% to 115.36.
As for individual names on the losing side,
United Fire & Casualty
(UFCS) - Get Report
slid 3.1% to $37.71 after A.G. Edwards cut the Iowa-based insurer to hold from buy, and
Prudential Financial
(PRU) - Get Report
shed 1.1% to $99.46 on word the New Jersey life insurer is shutting down its equity-research business, Prudential Equity Group.
Elsewhere, shares of
Hilb Rogal & Hobbs
(HRH)
slouched after the Virginia-based insurance broker agreed to buy Charlton Manley, a Kansas-based company that mainly operates as an insurance agency. Hilb Rogal was off 11 cents to $43.71.