NYCB, Qifu score biggest gains among financial stocks: weekly roundup

This week's biggest gainer in the financials sector featured a Chinese credit-tech platform posting better-than-expected full-year results. For the losers, a cryptocurrency miner fell the most as underlying token prices retreated.

Overall, financial stocks closed out the week ended March 15 in the green, with the Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (NYSEARCA:XLF) rising 0.4%, trouncing the S&P 500's 0.1% decrease.

Notching the biggest weekly gain of any financial stock (with market cap over $2B), China's Qifu Technology (NASDAQ:QFIN) gapped up 18.7% after posting full-year results that topped Wall Street expectations;

New York Community Bancorp (NYSE:NYCB) accelerated 14% as the regional lender closed on a $1.05B lifeline provided by an investor group led by former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin;

Specialty insurance company Palomar Holdings (NASDAQ:PLMR) jumped 10.4% after Jefferies upgraded shares to Buy from Hold;

Banco Macro S.A. (NYSE:BMA), an Argentine lender, advanced 9%; and

South Korea-based bank KB Financial Group (NYSE:KB) rounded out the five biggest winners with a 7.2% climb.

On the negative side, bitcoin (BTC-USD) miners Marathon Digital Holdings (NASDAQ:MARA) and CleanSpark (NASDAQ:CLSK) took the lead, dropping 17.7% and 13.9%, respectively, as bitcoin itself faced selling pressure;

Upstart Holdings (NASDAQ:UPST), a provider of an AI-driven lending platform for banks and credit unions, slid 13.6%;

Fintech bank SoFi Technologies (NASDAQ:SOFI) slumped 8.8%; and

Japanese bank Mizuho Financial Group (NYSE:MFG) dipped 7.9% as the Bank of Japan is seen ending its negative interest rate policy as soon as next week, gearing up for its first rate hike in 17 years.