Gainers And Losers In The Financial Sector On March 5 (AIG, TRH, COF, AXP, MA, DFS, JPM, WFC, GS, BAC, C)

The financial sector had its share of losers and gainers on Friday. Among the clear gainers was American International Group (NYSE: AIG), which announced that day that it had received a favorable ruling from the Internal Revenue Service on a tax issue. The resolution of the tax issue is likely to clear the way for the sale of AIG’s foreign life-insurance unit. Moreover, AIG announced the sale of its remaining 13.8% stake in Transatlantic Holdings (NYSE: TRH). AIG’s shares jumped 5.13% to $28.08 on Friday.

Another financial company that made its mark on Friday was Capital One Financial (NYSE: COF). The stock added 2.99% to $37.94, despite a downgrade by Goldman Sachs from “buy” to “neutral.” The analysts cited near-term worries over consumer credit for the downgrade. Among the other top gainers in the same industry, American Express (NYSE: AXP) rose 3.37%, Discover Financial (NYSE: DFS) gained 2.90% and MasterCard (NYSE: MA) moved up 2.81%.

Among US bank stocks, JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) and Washington Mutual moved up as talks on the disputed $3.7 billion deposit made by the latter’s parent company continued to make waves. While Washington Mutual said that its parent company has made a $3.7 billion deposit that will be used to repay creditors, JPM claimed that the money was a capital contribution made by the holding company towards Washington Mutual's banking operations. JPM gained 2.12% on Friday.

Among other major bank stocks that traded higher on Friday are Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC), Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) and Citigroup (NYSE: C).

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