Short Selling

Short Selling: Pilbara Minerals and Syrah remain the most shorted stocks, Appen shorts ease

Wed 07 Feb 24, 11:41am (AEDT)
marketsasx trading
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Key Points

  • Pilbara Minerals, Syrah Resources, and Core Lithium remain the most shorted stocks on the ASX
  • Develop Global sees rising short interest due to market focus on battery metal stocks
  • Appen's drastic share decline due to Google contract termination prompts slight unwinding of short interest in the stock

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) short interest changes between 19 and 31 January 2024. The rising and falling short interest ranks stocks based on largest WoW change.


Most Shorted

Ticker

Company

Short %

WoW % Chg

PLS

Pilbara Minerals

20.56%

-0.63%

SYR

Syrah Resources

17.32%

0.96%

CXO

Core Lithium

12.66%

0.04%

SYA

Sayona Mining

11.53%

0.16%

IEL

Idp Education

10.28%

0.06%

DYL

Deep Yellow

9.28%

0.61%

GMD

Genesis Minerals

9.13%

0.16%

WBT

Weebit Nano

8.78%

0.30%

FLT

Flight Centre

8.35%

0.00%

CHN

Chalice Mining

7.60%

0.81%


Pilbara Minerals, Syrah Resources and Core Lithium remain the top three most shorted stocks on the market. It's been like this since late November.

Thematically, short interest remains focused on large cap/liquid lithium exposure (aka Pilbara Minerals) and beleaguered battery metal players.


Rising Shorts

Ticker

Company

Short %

WoW % Chg

DVP

Develop Global

2.11%

1.62%

SVL

Silver Mines

1.77%

1.19%

NAN

Nanosonics

5.42%

1.16%

SYR

Syrah Resources

17.32%

0.96%

CHN

Chalice Mining

7.60%

0.81%

29M

29Metals

3.75%

0.78%

LOT

Lotus Resources

1.56%

0.72%

SHV

Select Harvests

6.65%

0.63%

DYL

Deep Yellow

9.28%

0.61%

CXL

Calix

4.41%

0.53%


Develop Global owns and operates several mining projects in Australia, including the Sulphur Springs Project, the Woodlawn zinc-copper Project and the recently acquired Pioneer Dome lithium project. The company's December quarter noted significant progress in its strategy to establish a portfolio of high-quality Australian battery metals assets. The market's focus on shorting battery metal stocks might explain the recent uptick in DVP shorts. To add some perspective, short interest in the stock was around 0.2% in December 2023.

Silver Mines experienced a timely uptick in short interest as the stock was halted on February 1 to undertake a $10 million capital raise at 13.5 cents per share, or a 20.5% discount to its previous close. Unsurprisingly, the stock finished the next session down 20.5% to 13.5 cents. A win for the new short sellers.


Short Covering

Ticker

Company

Short %

WoW % Chg

APX

Appen

5.29%

-0.96%

APM

APM Human Services

1.34%

-0.88%

ILU

Iluka Resources

2.30%

-0.72%

PNV

Polynovo

3.82%

-0.67%

MP1

Megaport

2.35%

-0.67%

PLS

Pilbara Minerals

20.56%

-0.63%

IPH

IPH

3.04%

-0.45%

JIN

Jumbo Interactive

0.41%

-0.45%

SUL

Super Retail Group

3.35%

-0.45%

AGY

Argosy Minerals

4.39%

-0.41%


Appen shares tumbled -40% on Monday, 22 January, bringing its 12-month performance to an unthinkable -89.5%. The selloff was accompanied by an announcement about major customer Google terminating its contract. To add some perspective, Google accounted for $82.8 million of Appen's FY23 revenue. Shorts have now started to unwind slightly from the stock.

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Written By

Kerry Sun

Content Strategist

Kerry holds a Bachelor of Commerce from Monash University. He is an avid swing trader, focused on technical set ups and breakouts. Outside of writing and trading, Kerry is a big UFC fan, loves poker and training Muay Thai. Connect via LinkedIn or email.

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