Factbox-Short sellers rake in $1.2 billion in profits as US regional bank stocks suffer

(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)