Bank stocks were mixed Monday, though most financials ended the session in positive territory.
Brokers, and many banking companies with heavily market-sensitive revenues, fell. Included in this group were trust and processing banks.
Those declines pulled down the Philadelphia Stock Exchange/KBW index 0.2%, while the American Banker index of 225 banks rose 0.1%. Citigroup Inc. and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. fell 0.3% and 0.6%, respectively, but Bank of America Corp. rose 0.4% and Wachovia Corp. was unchanged. The Standard & Poor's 500 rose 0.3%.
SunTrust Banks Inc. of Atlanta fell 1.1% after Jefferson Harralson, an analyst with Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc., downgraded its shares to "market perform" from "outperform," citing valuation.
Boston Private Financial Holdings Inc., which often trades in line with market-sensitive banks, was hit hard particularly hard. Its shares fell 5.8% around midday after it announced it was buying 81% of KLS Professional Advisors Group Inc., a New York wealth management firm, for $30 million in cash and stock. Boston Private's stock recovered somewhat to close down 2.6%.
AmeriCredit Corp. of Fort Worth was among the day's top gainers. It said it had entered into a $650 million finance deal that matures in October 2007 and replaces a $500 million deal that will be retired in two weeks. AmeriCredit's stock rose 3.2%.
