(Reuters) – Short sellers have pocketed $1.2 billion in paper profits betting against U.S. regional lenders in the first two days of May, analytics firm Ortex said, as the third major regional bank failure in two months sparked a selloff in the sector.
U.S. regulators seized First Republic Bank and sold most of its assets to JPMorgan Chase & Co on Monday in a $10.6 billion deal.
Here is a list of companies that generated the most profits for short sellers on May 1 and May 2:
Regional bank Paper profits
Truist Financial Corp $101,956,754
PacWest Bancorp $82,369,064
Citizens Financial Group Inc $74,099,858
Zions Bancorp $60,333,594
Western Alliance Bancorp $51,584,942
Valley National Bancorp $47,771,091
M&T Bank Corp $47,420,161
First Horizon Corp $46,089,179
Huntington Bancshares Inc $45,972,981
Regions Financial Corp $34,300,680
Source: Ortex data
(Compiled by Medha Singh in Bengaluru; Edited by Shounak Dasgupta)