NEW YORK(TheStreet) -- Even though the broader market was sluggish on Wednesday as politicians argued over tax cuts, financial stocks brought in some gains.
The Financial Select Sector SPDR(XLF) was up 13 cents in afternoon trading.
Life insurers were big winners Wednesday after the Standard & Poor's raised its outlook for the insurance industry in 2011. Lincoln National Corp.(LNC) was up $1.83 at $27.17. Metlife(MET) was up $1.52 at $42.68 and Prudential(PRU) was up $1.45 at $55.09.
MasterCard(MA) shares were up $1.57 at $248.35 even though its website was down on Wednesday morning, one day after the payments firm said it was disassociating its network from the controversial WikiLeaks.
SunTrust Bank(STI) shares were up 92 cents, to $26.43, on news that new stress tests will determine how soon SunTrust Bank repay TARP.
Losers of the day included KKR Financial Holdings (KFN), a unit of the private equity firm. The stock sank 39 cents a share to $9.10 on news it will sell at least 18 million shares in a public offering.
Citigroup(C)shares also struggled to keep in the green at $4.61 on news of the U.S. Treasury Department's sale of the remaining 2.4 billion shares. Citi Chairman Richard Parsons told CNBCthat the bank was still too-big-to-fail, even after the government bailout. Those banks working on underwriting the government's sale of the Citi stake including Morgan Stanley(MS) are expected to collect $42.3 million in fees from Citigroup.
--Written by Maria Woehr in New York.
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