Builder Gains Most Among Industry Stocks Wednesday

Most mortgage stocks gained in value Wednesday even though the Dow dropped slightly.

Faring best among stocks that comprise this publication's Mortgage Industry Equity Composite was builder KB Home, followed by Fiserv and OceanFirst Financial Corp. All three ended the day with gains in the 2% range.

Home Loan Servicing Solutions and CoreLogic were the only two MIEC stocks to take losses on the day, but their losses and the Dow's were fractional percentage declines well below 1%, according to Yahoo Finance.

A $100 investment in MIEC stocks on Jan. 1, 1998 based on week-to-week gains as of Wednesday would be worth a little over $39, according to this publication’s MortgageStats subsidiary. The index’s general trend was stable to slightly higher through most of 2013, but since December it has drifted a bit lower.