HSBC Plunges Record 24%, Punished by Late Trades

[Tab]

Source: Bloomberg

March 9 (Bloomberg) -- HSBC Holdings Plc plunged the most in at least 23 years in Hong Kong, driven to a 13-year low by last- minute trades and concern about deepening loan losses at its U.S. business.

The shares fell 24 percent to HK$33 at the 4 p.m. close, the lowest since May 1995. HSBC, Europe’s largest bank, has lost 42 percent since announcing on March 2 that it will raise 12.5 billion pounds ($17.6 billion) in a rights offer at the equivalent of HK$28 apiece.
...
“People are not so animated on the outlook given their ongoing exposure to the U.S.” lending business, said Warren Blight, a Hong Kong-based analyst at Fox-Pitt Kelton Asia Ltd.

HSBC Chairman Stephen Green last week said the 2003 purchase of Illinois-based Household International, which led to billions of dollars of losses as the U.S. housing market collapsed, was a mistake. CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets analyst Daniel Tabbush, who in December correctly predicted HSBC would have to raise money, cut his target price for the stock by 32 percent to HK$28, citing the threat of swelling bad debts.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ao5GKNlN6AOA&refer=home

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Tick, tock, tick, tock...

[CatholicEdHead]

1. Ouch

[sinkingfeeling]

2. But, but their TV ads say they're paying 5 times the interest rate of other banks.

[xchrom]

3. wow -- just wow --

everyone is just treading water.

how will ANY economy get traction if things keep going this way?

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. Though it made most of it back up in the UK market

http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/fds/hi/business/market_data/shares/3/87100/default.stm

down 3.26% from the Friday close, by the end of London trading on Monday. :shrug:

[alcibiades_mystery]

5. Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of fuckwads

About five years ago, HSBC began buying up the worst predatory lenders in the credit card industry, such as the infamous loan-sharking operation "Direct Merchant's Bank." Rather than try to stem the despicable practices of these companies, HSBC intensified them. It's fitting that they would be brought down by consumer defaults, since their disgusting policies contributed mightily to debt misery and the very defaults now deflating their stock price.

FUCK YOU, HSBC. Serves you goddamn right.

[Tab]

6. That, and owning Orchard Bank, too, I think?

Orchard lends to people with poor credit, and attempts to structure things so they gain credit as they become more "trustworthy". Orchard is/was HSBC's sub-prime lending arm, and therefore far riskier.

[marasinghe]

7. not to mention their origins, financing the militarily-enforced opium trade

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong_%26_Shanghai_Bank

quote --
After the British established Hong Kong as a colony in the aftermath of the Opium Wars, local merchants felt the need for a bank to finance the growing trade between China and Europe (with traded products including opium) ... They established the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation ... in Hong Kong and Shanghai in 1865.

The founder, a Scotsman named Thomas Sutherland, wanted a bank operating on "sound Scottish banking principles
-- unquote.

old sins - long shadows.

[pinniped]

8. These assholes will probably raise CC rates again on those that didn't opt-out.

Scumbags

[RamboLiberal]

9. Hong Kong stock commentator in tears at HSBC plunge

A veteran Hong Kong stock commentator burst into tears during a live television broadcast as she saw HSBC's shares plunge dramatically seconds before the end of Monday's trading.

Agnes Wu's comments on the recent volatility of the banking giant's Hong Kong-listed shares trailed off as she saw its price slump to 33 Hong Kong dollars (4.23 US) after a last-minute sell order, a clip on Cable News showed.

Wu and the anchor of the show were both wide-eyed and they shouted out the closing price in surprise. She was unable to continue talking and shook her head for a few seconds.

The normally tough commentator then started to sob and said: "It's a heart-wrecking fall."

Wu later told The Standard newspaper she does not hold shares in the financial heavyweight. She explained she could not help bursting into tears because she felt it was unfair for big players to bully small investors.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.d72dee6b34ee20d4e72e635602e707b3.691&show_article=1