SHORT SELLING

Short selling: Which ASX stocks are investors covering and shorting? — Week 31

Lithium and battery metal stocks experienced a broad-based rise in short interest this week.

Lead Writer
2 August 2023
This article is more than 12 months old and may be outdated
2 min read
Short selling: Which ASX stocks are investors covering and shorting? — Week 31

Source: iStock

Mentioned

KEY POINTS

  • The top ten most shorted stocks remain unchanged compared to last week
  • Shares in Downer, AMA Group, Hansen Technologies and Adairs have bounced strongly in the past month and shorts are beginning to ease
  • Four high-profile battery metal stocks experienced an uptick in short interest

Welcome back to the Short Seller Series, where we recap the most shorted stocks on the ASX, along with those experiencing a notable rise and fall in 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 table below compares short interest changes between 19 July and 26 July.


Most shorted stocks

Ticker
Company
Short %
Prev
% Chg
Core Lithium
11.06%
10.20%
0.86%
Flight Centre 
10.08%
10.30%
-0.22%
Idp Education 
9.99%
9.69%
0.30%
Syrah Resources 
8.72%
8.72%
0.00%
JB Hi-Fi 
8.22%
8.36%
-0.14%
Select Harvests 
7.75%
7.75%
0.00%
Brainchip 
7.55%
7.32%
0.23%
Lendlease Group
7.43%
7.26%
0.17%
AMA Group 
7.37%
8.03%
-0.66%
Lake Resources 
7.20%
6.83%
0.37%

What’s changed

  • Top ten most shorted stocks remain unchanged

  • Core Lithium rises to #1 as Flight Centre drops to #2 


Where are shorts covering? 

Ticker
Company
Short %
Prev
% Chg
Jervois Global 
4.13%
6.22%
-2.09%
Downer Edi 
5.59%
6.31%
-0.72%
AMA Group 
7.37%
8.03%
-0.66%
Hansen Technologies 
2.44%
2.98%
-0.54%
Megaport 
2.59%
3.12%
-0.53%
Adairs 
2.37%
2.89%
-0.52%
Nanosonics 
3.66%
4.14%
-0.48%
Janus Henderson 
2.53%
3.00%
-0.47%
Sayona Mining 
4.51%
4.96%
-0.45%
Northern Star Resources
1.29%
1.73%
-0.44%

Key themes

  • Shares in Downer, AMA Group, Hansen Technologies and Adairs have all bounced strongly in the past month but are still negative year-to-date. The stocks are experiencing a slight pullback in short interest.

  • Shorts in Sayona also eased as the stock hit levels not seen since July 2022.


Where are shorters going?

Ticker
Company
Short %
Prev
% Chg
Core Lithium
11.06%
10.20%
0.86%
Imugene 
6.60%
5.83%
0.77%
Mineral Resources 
2.74%
2.03%
0.71%
Cleanaway 
3.03%
2.39%
0.64%
Appen 
5.72%
5.09%
0.63%
Pilbara Minerals 
6.71%
6.10%
0.61%
Pinnacle Investment Management
3.59%
3.03%
0.56%
Oneview Healthcare
3.40%
2.86%
0.54%
Regis Resources 
2.18%
1.68%
0.50%
29Metals
6.53%
6.05%
0.48%
Arafura Rare Earths
3.72%
3.26%
0.46%

Key themes 

  • Broad-based rise in short interest for lithium and battery metal-related shorts

    • Benchmark Minerals Intelligence reported a 4.4% decline in battery-grade lithium carbonate prices in China for the week ending 26 July due to a slowdown in purchases ad rise in domestic supply

  • Regis Resources experienced a timely uptick in short interest

    • The mid-tier gold producer tumbled 19% last week after its FY24 guidance flagged below-consensus production at higher costs

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lead Writer

Kerry holds a Bachelor of Commerce from Monash University. He is passionate about equity research and trading (swing and intraday), with a focus on breaking down market-related catalysts into clear, contextual insights and developing data-driven market biases.

05/06/2026