Futu Holdings led financial stocks down in week's action, Grupo Aval led gainers

Bet_Noire

An online brokerage firm that operate in China, Futu Holdings (NASDAQ:FUTU), ended the last week of the year as the biggest decliner in the financial sector (with market cap over $2B) after a Chinese regulator told it to fix their "illegal" activities.

Their performance contrasts with the financial sector, overall, which managed to end the week in the green. The Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLF), rose 0.8% in the holiday-shortened week. But for the year, XLF dropped 12%.

For the week ended Dec. 30, Futu (FUTU) tumbled almost 35% after the China Securities Regulatory Commissioned said the company has been operating cross-border securities trading businesses for years without the commission's approval. FUTU said it would cooperate with the CSRC. UP Fintech Holding (TIGR), which has a market cap of under $1B, dropped 31% for the week, as it too was warned by the CSRC.

Following FUTU are: Mortgage wholesaler UWM Holdings (UWMC), fell 12%, in a week when mortgage rates rose after weeks of falling;

Erie Indemnity (ERIE) dropped 10% for the week;

Woori Financial (WF) slid 8.3%; and

Trupanion (TRUP), which offers pet health insurance, declined 6.8%;

Financial stocks ending the year on an upbeat note were headed Colombian bank Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores (AVAL), which gained 9.5%; followed by

Argentinean bank Grupo Financiero Galicia (GGAL), which rose 8.7%;

Auto lender Credit Acceptance Corp. (CACC) drove up 7.2%;

SVB Financial (SIVB), the parent of Silicon Valley Bank and SVB Capital, climbed 5.6% for the week; and

Texas Capital Bancshares (TCBI) increased 5.7%.

On Thursday, Paysafe (PSFE) and Lightspeed (LSPD) led fintech names up in a risk-on market.