Most Finance Groups Fall Despite Rate Cuts But a handful of S&L stocks benefited from cheaper cost of money.(MAKING MONEY IN MUTUALS)

Byline: Nancy Gondo

Wednesday's 25 basis-point cut in the federal funds rate may have been the Federal Reserve's sixth this year, but investors clearly were looking for more. As if yawning at the rate cut, the major indexes were nearly flat that day.

Financial stocks tend to do well when rates come down. But the rankings of most Finance groups tracked by Investor's Business Daily have slipped in the last three months. And money managers, for the most part, think the cut already had been factored into stock prices.

"I think (financial services stocks) already had their move in anticipation of it," said Anton Schutz, manager of $13 million Burnham Financial Services, which was up 24.3% this year through Thursday.

Bob Kloss, who co-manages $444 million Pilgrim Financial Services with Steve Rayner, was looking for a bigger rate cut. And he predicted the market's lack of gusto for the Wednesday cut.

"If we get a 25 basis-point cut it'd probably be a disappointment to the market a little bit, whereas if we get 50 it should be positive to neutral," he said before the Fed acted.

The fund was up 11.1% for the year.