Short Selling: IGO, Chalice Mining and Core Lithium shorts ease, Select Harvests' turnaround

Welcome back to the Short Seller Series – A recap of the most heavily shorted stocks on the ASX as well as those experiencing significant changes to short interest over the past week.

Short selling data is four days behind today's date because reporting is not mandatory until three business days after the trade. The tables below compare:

• Week-on-week (WoW % Chg) changes between 5 March and 27 Feb

• Month-on-month (MoM % Chg) changes between 5 March and 7 February

Most Shorted

Key themes and takeaways:

• Pilbara Minerals and Syrah Resources remain the top two most shorted stocks on the market since late November 2023.

• Core Lithium has lost a quarter of its short interest in the past week (27 Feb to 5 Mar). During this time, the share price has only rallied around 6.7%. The company was also removed from the ASX 200 as part of the S&P's quarterly rebalance.

• Liontown experienced a small uptick in short interest to levels not seen since early January. On 26 February, the company issued a Kathleen Valley project and funding update. The project remains on schedule and budget for first production around mid-2024. Liontown said it is advancing on a range of funding options to support the ramp-up to 3Mtpa steady state while preserving growth optionality. An update is expected by the end of March quarter.

Rising Shorts

Key themes and takeaways:

• Flight Centre experienced a jump in short interest following the release of its half-year FY24 on 28 February (from 8.49% to 9.62%). It was a pretty messy session, with the stock opening -3.9% lower, falling to -8.5% in early trade and recovering to a -1.7% close. "A result for both bulls and bears, with a guidance upgrade (albeit low quality but common practice) and ~$16m of arguably BAU costs (US wholesale/employee retention) put below the line," Citi analysts said in a note dated 28 February. Contrary to shorters, the analyst expects FY25 to be the "strongest macro environment for FLT" and retained a Buy rating.

• Shorts increased across a number of reporting season losers including IDP Education, Kelsian Group, Australian Clinical Labs, Domino's Pizza, Sims, John Lyng Group and Super Retail Group. According to the Coppo report, reporting season miss (against analyst expectations) on average fell 6.3% and then four months later, still down by 8.4%.

Most Covered

Key themes and takeaways:

• IGO shorts fell from 4.56% to 0.85% on Thursday, 29 February. There company did not release any market-sensitive news for accompany such a move. IGO is widely regarded as one of the world's lowest cost lithium producers.

• Chalice shares have effectively become a proxy for palladium prices. According to the company's August 2023 scoping study, around 55% of revenue from its flagship Gonneville deposit is projected to come from palladium production. Recent weeks have witnessed a sizeable rally in prices, up almost 20% from mid-February lows. The resurgence may be driving some degree of short covering for the struggling developer.

• Select Harvest has undergone a notable turnaround in recent weeks, rebounding from a nearly 40% selloff in the December quarter. Last November, the company reported a full-year net loss of $115 million, significantly higher than consensus expectations of -$77.5 million, attributed to adverse weather conditions and depressed almond prices. However, by February, the company said its seen a steady recovery in almond prices and in the midst of rolling out cost-control initiatives. The stock rallied 19% last month to a near four-month high.