AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc (NYSE:AMC) saw its share price rocket on Wednesday as it became a recipient of the ‘short squeeze’ bull market that had originally sent GameStop Corp (NYSE:GME) soaring to record highs this week.
In mid-morning trading on Wall Street, the cinema chain’s was up 217.5% at US$15.75 despite a lack of news as investors inspired by retail traders from Reddit forum r/wallstreetbets began targeting stocks with large amounts of short positions against them in what has been dubbed by some as a battle royal between retail investors and institutional hedge funds.
READ: Short sellers squeezed as more retail investors pile into GameStop rally
The losses for the latter have so far been eye-watering, with the rally in GameStop shares having cost short-sellers around US$3.3bn in lost bets so far this year, with US$1.6bn lost last Friday alone.
The trend also appeared to have spread to the UK markets in late-afternoon trading in London, with shares in Cineworld Group PLC (LON:CINE) and Pearson PLC (LON:PSON), both of which are heavily shorted, rising 9.5% to 80.1p and 11.5% to 848.6p respectively.