As Swiss lender Credit Suisse's shares started hitting newer lows on Wednesday, Twitter users in India said US short seller Hindenburg Research should have shorted the embattled lender rather than Adani Group and earned lot more.
Credit Suisse's largest shareholder, Saudi National Bank, said it would not buy more shares in the Swiss bank on regulatory grounds and that led to further 25% fall in Credit Suisse's shares, which have already been pummelled earlier in the week in market fallout from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.
Credit Suisse got ridiculed on Twitter as its private banking arm stopped accepting bonds of some of the Adani Group firms -- Adani Ports & SEZ, Adani Green Energy, and Adani Electricity Mumbai –- as collateral for margin loans amid Hindenburg row.
Seven listed Adani Group companies lost over $130 billion in market value combined after a US short seller Hindenburg Research alleged stock manipulation and improper use of tax havens, and flagged concerns over debt levels. Adani has rejected the concerns and denied any wrongdoing.
Twitter users in India felt schadenfreude after seeing the Swiss banking major's woes and said Hindenburg should have gone after Credit Suisse and it would have earned lot more.
Here's a tweet poking fun at Credit Suisse, Hindenburg.
"#CreditSuisse, who stopped accepting Adani Bonds as Colateral, its own shares crash. Who will take them as Colateral now, CS?" asked another Twitter user.
"If hindenburg had shorted Credit Suisse and US Banks they would have made more money than shorting Adani stocks," quipped another Twitter user.
Short sellers may have raked in $2.29 billion in profit in the past three sessions, as they took advantage ofa selloff in regional bank shares following the collapse of SVB Financial Group and Signature Bank, S3 Partners said.
The S&P 500 regional banks index is down about 18% since Friday when the FDIC shut down SVB Financial Group due to a liquidity crisis at the bank that sent shockwaves through the financial sector. The index is down about 34% for the month.
Meanwhile, Wall Street's main indexes opened lower on Wednesday as turbulence at Credit Suisse renewed fears of a banking crisis. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 395.53 points, or 1.23%, at the open to 31,759.87.
The S&P 500 opened lower by 42.55 points, or 1.09%, at 3,876.74, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 136.98 points, or 1.20%, to 11,291.17 at the opening bell.