Romney Rally: Banks, Health Care, Coal Stocks Big Winners.

Can we call this the Romney rally?

Considering stocks have been higher all day despite a dearth of catalysts, some market participants are pointing to Republican candidate Mitt Romney’s perceived victory over President Obama in last night’s debate as a potential catalyst for the rally.

“U.S. equities are getting a Romney push,” says Andrew Brenner, global head of international fixed income at National Alliance. “Seems like the marketplace believes Romney is better for stocks and the economy.”

The Dow recently rose 91 points, or 0.7%, to 13583, a fairly sizable move compared to the recent action over the last few weeks Bank of America BAC +3.35% Alcoa AA +3.30% and J.P. Morgan JPM +2.37% are leading the blue chips higher. The S&P 500 is up 0.7% to 1462, with the financial and energy sectors among the top performers.

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Other potential drivers for today’s market action don’t appear to be having a big impact. This morning’s batch of economic data — including a slight rise in jobless claims — was relatively ho-hum. The European Central Bank kept rates unchanged, as expected, and ECB President Mario Draghi didn’t say anything brash at this morning’s press conference.

“No question this is a bump from last night’s debate,” Brenner says.

Conventional wisdom on Wall Street tends to lean toward the conservative side. Even though the stock market has more than doubled since President Obama took office, traders often clamor for a Romney victory due to the perception of his pro-business stance and favorable tax and regulatory policies.

The fact that material, financial and energy stocks are leading the way shouldn’t come as a total shock. Romney said he would repeal the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul and replace it with new regulation, which would likely favor financial stocks. Morgan Stanley MS +2.58% and Citigroup C +2.64% are also up today.

He also spent time touting his energy policy. ”I like coal,” Romney said last night.

That comment is helping give a boost to coal stocks, which have long been a beaten down corner of the market due to global economic concerns, difficult weather conditions and declining prices.

Coal companies such as Arch Coal ACI +7.90% Alpha Natural Resources ANR +6.75%Peabody Energy BTU +4.13% and Consol Energy CNX +5.59% are seeing big gains amid Romney’s support for the industry.

Health care stocks are also doing well. Here’s a dispatch from our Dow Jones colleague Jon Kamp:

Stocks are trading up today as Mitt Romney gets good debate reviews, since he has pledged to get rid of health-care law that promises more customers for big insurers but also profit-squeezing coverage requirements.

WellPoint (WLP) is leading the charge, up 3.2%, because it’s business makeup has particular exposure to health-law changes Aetna AET +1.67%(AET) — which is acquiring Coventry (CVH), another firm with big exposure — is up and UnitedHealth UNH +1.95% is rising.

“While extremely short term in nature, the trading direction of the major healthcare categories today are aligned with our expectations should Romney win in November,” Stifel Nicolaus says.

As we wrote earlier, the Intrade online prediction market is still pegging Obama reelection odds at about 2-to-1, even after last night’s debate in which Romney saw a big uptick in his chances for getting elected.

Determining which direction the market will head in the short- and long-term based on presidential candidates is generally a dicey proposition. This year is no exception.

“At least for the last two months of 2012, the winner may solely determine how the year closes,” says Peter Boockvar, managing director at Miller Tabak & Co.