Jonathan Kitchen
The biggest decliners among financial stocks this week included three bitcoin (BTC-USD) miners, one cryptocurrency exchange and one insurance company. Conversely, non-U.S. banks scored the biggest gains on the heels of a weaker U.S. dollar.
In all, financial stocks (with market cap over $2B) kicked off the first week of Q2 in the red, with the Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (NYSEARCA:XLF) drifting down 1.3%, compared with the S&P 500’s 1% decline.
With the price of bitcoin (BTC-USD) dipping for the week, BTC miners CleanSpark (NASDAQ:CLSK), Marathon Digital Holdings (NASDAQ:MARA) and Riot Platforms (NASDAQ:RIOT) fell the most of any financial stock, sliding 26.5%, 18.4% and 16.7%, respectively;
Specialty insurance company Kinsale Capital Group (NYSE:KNSL) retreated 14.6%; and
Coinbase Global (NASDAQ:COIN), the U.S.’s largest crypto exchange, rounded out the five biggest financial losers with a 9.1% slump. During the week, the trading platform secured a restricted dealer license in Canada amid a regulatory crackdown in the U.S.
For the winners, Argentine bank Grupo Financiero Galicia (NASDAQ:GGAL) took the lead, climbing 7.7%, as the U.S. dollar weakened against a basket of developed currencies for the week.
Bancolombia (NYSE:CIB), a Colombian lender, advanced 6.3%;
Fellow Argentina-based lender Banco Macro (NYSE:BMA) gapped up 6.1%;
India’s HDFC Bank (NYSE:HDB) gained 5.4%; and
NatWest Group (NYSE:NWG), a lender based in the U.K., drifted higher by 5.2%.