Mortgage Stocks Led Sell-Off

All of the mortgage stocks tracked by the MortgageWire Equity Composite declined on March 13, contributing to an approximately 2% decrease in major stock indices that analysts attributed in part to concern about subprime mortgage performance.Hardest hit were mortgage real estate investment trusts and firms that specialize in nonprime lending. Delta Financial was down 11% to $1.09, and American Home Mortgage Investment saw its stock price fall 10%, to $21.37. Other big losers were NetBank, down 8%; IndyMac, down 8%; PMI, down 6%; KB Home, down 5%; Washington Mutual, down 5%; TGIC, down 5%; and Countrywide, down 5%.