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This week’s biggest financial gainers were led by one bitcoin (BTC-USD) miner, two South Korean banks, one U.S. lender and one Japanese lender. On the other hand, two Argentine banks fell the most, followed by two reinsurers and one investment brokerage.
Overall, financial stocks (with market cap over $2B) closed out the past five trading sessions in the green, with the Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (NYSEARCA:XLF) advancing 1.4%, slightly trailing the S&P 500’s 1.5% rise.
Recording the biggest weekly gain, Iris Energy (NASDAQ:IREN) jumped some 28% after posting a moderate increase in the number of bitcoins (BTC-USD) it produced in June. The spike comes in stark contrast to bitcoin’s big slide.
KB Financial Group (NYSE:KB) and Shinhan Financial Group (NYSE:SHG), both South Korean banks, ascended 13% and 12%, respectively;
New York Community Bancorp (NYSE:NYCB), which during the holiday-shortened week announced the effective date for its 1-for-3 reverse stock split, climbed 10%; and
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (NYSE:MUFG), which dominated last week’s financial winners on the back of a weaker yen, gained 8.6%.
On the negative side, Argentine lenders Grupo Financiero Galicia (NASDAQ:GGAL) and Banco Macro (NYSE:BMA) fell the most, retreating 10% and 6.4%, respectively;
RenaissanceRe Holdings (NYSE:RNR), a provider of reinsurance and insurance products, dipped 5.8%;
Brazilian investment brokerage XP (NASDAQ:XP) slumped 5.1%; and
Fellow reinsurer Everest Group (NYSE:EG) moved down 4.6%.