Financials Showed Slight Gains On March 23 (ETFC, FRE, PMI, RDN, MTG, FNM, JPM, LM, C, XLF, CBL)

Financial stocks got a slight boost yesterday, aided by a rally in mortgage insurers and in E-Trade Financial Corp (NASDAQ: ETFC).

One of the top percentage gainers on the New York Stock Exchange was PMI Group Inc (NYSE: PMI), which jumped roughly 16% to close at $3.64 a share. PMI benefited from the announcement made by Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) that it has approved PMI's Mortgage Assurance Co unit as a direct issuer of mortgage guaranty insurance.

Other mortgage insurers that traded higher on this news were MGIC Investment Corp (NYSE: MTG), which added 1.71%, and Radian Group Inc (NYSE: RDN), which gained 2.59% in yesterday’s trading.

Yesterday, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner testified in Washington about the future of Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) and Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM). These mortgage-finance giants were effectively taken over by the government during the credit crisis.

ETFC gained lost ground to close up 7.28% yesterday after losing ground in the earlier four sessions. Monday’s announcement by the company of a reverse stock split and that they have hired a new chief executive lead to a 4% fall in ETFC’s share price. Shares of Legg Mason Inc (NYSE: LM), JP Morgan Chase & Co (NYSE: JPM) and Citigroup Inc (NYSE: C) also closed in positive territory yesterday.

Following the news of a fall in existing-home sales for the third consecutive week in February to the lowest rate in eight months, the Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE: XLF) gained about 1%. On the other hand, CBL & Associates Properties Inc (NYSE: CBL) closed down 6.6% after UBS downgraded the shares to “sell” from “neutral.”

Read more from Benzinga's Markets.