S&P 500 ends up slightly; SVB deal lifts bank shares

NEW YORK, March 27 (Reuters) – The S&P 500 ended slightly higher on Monday as a deal for Silicon Valley Bank’s assets helped to boost bank shares, while a decline in technology-related stocks limited the day’s gains.

The S&P 500 banks index rose 3.1%, while the KBW regional banking index ended up 0.6%.

JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM) shares climbed 2.9% and Bank of America (BAC) added 5%. They were among stocks giving the S&P 500 its biggest boost on Monday.

Shares of First Citizens BancShares Inc (FCNCA) shot up more than 50% after it said it would acquire the deposits and loans of Silicon Valley Bank, which failed earlier this month in the largest bank collapse since the 2008 financial crisis.

Also, shares of First Republic Bank (FRC) were up 11.8% after Bloomberg reported US authorities were considering more support for banks, which could give the struggling First Republic more time to shore up its balance sheet.

Tech-related growth shares were lower, however, and the Nasdaq ended down on the day.

“There’s still a lot going on in the financial sector, and it’s actually good news today,” said Tim Ghriskey, senior portfolio strategist at Ingalls & Snyder in New York.

But tech and growth stocks have “had a very strong quarter, so there may be some profit-taking as we head into the end of the quarter.”

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 194.55 points, or 0.6%, to 32,432.08, the S&P 500 gained 6.54 points, or 0.16%, to 3,977.53 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 55.12 points, or 0.47%, to 11,768.84.

Shares of Apple AAPL.O were down 1.2%. The S&P 500 technology index is up more than 16% for the quarter so far.

Crypto shares were also down Monday after the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said crypto exchange Binance and its CEO and founder Changpeng Zhao have been sued by the CFTC for operating an “illegal” exchange and a “sham” compliance program.

Among other stock gainers, Walt Disney (DIS) shares ended up 1.6% after the company began 7,000 in layoffs announced earlier this year.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 2.57-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.44-to-1 ratio favored advancers.

The S&P 500 posted 6 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 56 new highs and 128 new lows.

Volume on US exchanges was 10.32 billion shares, compared with the 12.9 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.

(Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch in New York and additional reporting by Amruta Khandekar and Ankika Biswas; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Aurora Ellis)