The 10 most shorted ASX stocks plus the biggest risers and fallers – Week 21
Short sellers continue to aggressive target Lotus Resources, while lifting bearish bets against tech stocks and Arafura Rare Earths.
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Mentioned
Welcome back to the Short Seller Series – A recap of the most heavily shorted stocks on the ASX and 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 will compare:
Week-on-week changes between 4 and 12 May 2026
Month-on-month changes between 7 April and 12 May 2026
Most covered and rising short tables record week-on-week changes of ~0.5% or more
Most Shorted
Short sellers continue to aggressively target Lotus Resources, which hasn't released any market-sensitive updates since 30 April. On this day, the stock nosedived 34% after retracting its mined grade, milled grade and recovery figures, citing inconsistencies in laboratory sampling and assaying at Kayelekera. It has since dropped a further 35% to its lowest level since 2020. Elsewhere, growth and tech names like Zip, DroneShield and Car Group have also seen a modest week-on-week increase in short interest.
Ticker | Company | Short % | Week-on-Week | Month-on-Month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Lotus Resources | 16.01% | 0.90% | 6.31% | |
Domino's Pizza | 15.55% | -0.31% | 0.22% | |
Telix | 15.27% | -0.30% | 0.67% | |
Polynovo | 14.37% | 0.04% | 0.38% | |
Guzman Y Gomez | 13.87% | -0.15% | 0.21% | |
Boss Energy | 13.26% | -0.05% | 1.52% | |
Treasury Wine Estates | 12.85% | 0.37% | 0.34% | |
Zip | 12.21% | 0.31% | 1.05% | |
Droneshield | 11.09% | 0.28% | -0.38% | |
Flight Centre Travel Group | 10.89% | 0.19% | -1.11% | |
Car Group | 10.70% | 0.34% | 3.63% |
Rising Shorts
Arafura is an interesting one within the broader rare earth supply theme. On 13 May, it signed a binding offtake with Traxys North America for 500 tonnes per annum of NdPr oxide and 7.5 tonnes of DyTb oxide. What sets this deal apart from other recent rare earth agreements is the absence of a floor price (e.g. the Lynas-Japan deal featured a floor price of US$110/kg).
Ticker | Company | Short % | Week-on-Week | Month-on-Month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Lotus Resources | 16.01% | 0.90% | 6.31% | |
Arafura Rare Earths | 4.16% | 0.83% | 1.24% | |
Immutep | 2.78% | 0.81% | 2.23% | |
Megaport | 6.23% | 0.77% | 2.24% | |
Temple & Webster Group | 6.83% | 0.72% | 1.99% | |
The Lottery Corporation | 3.87% | 0.56% | 0.81% | |
Peninsula Energy | 1.22% | 0.54% | 0.48% | |
Capricorn Metals | 1.35% | 0.54% | 0.89% | |
Worley | 3.11% | 0.53% | 1.84% | |
Imdex | 3.11% | 0.51% | 0.41% |
Most Covered
McMillan ran an eight-day win streak between 28 April and 8 May, rallying 18.5% to a fresh eight-month high on no market-sensitive news. There's no dominant theme across the most-covered names. DigiCo and MinRes have performed strongly in recent weeks, while BOQ, GDG, DYL and GNC have tumbled off the back of trading updates and/or broader sector weakness.
Ticker | Company | Short % | Week-on-Week | Month-on-Month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
McMillan Shakespeare | 5.88% | -1.71% | -2.66% | |
Impedimed | 0.47% | -1.17% | -0.11% | |
Breville Group | 8.64% | -0.85% | -0.73% | |
Digico Infrastructure REIT | 6.39% | -0.82% | 0.28% | |
IPH | 8.96% | -0.80% | -0.32% | |
Bank of Queensland | 4.48% | -0.80% | 1.16% | |
Generation Development Group | 9.32% | -0.62% | 3.34% | |
Deep Yellow | 5.87% | -0.60% | -0.02% | |
Mineral Resources | 4.72% | -0.59% | -1.54% | |
Technology One | 2.15% | -0.59% | -0.13% | |
Graincorp | 2.93% | -0.55% | 0.94% | |
Bega Cheese | 1.19% | -0.50% | -0.42% |
