The 10 most shorted ASX stocks plus the biggest risers and fallers – Week 26

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 6 and 16 June 2025

• Month-on-month changes between 19 May and 16 June 2025

• Most covered and rising short tables record week-on-week changes of 0.5% or more

Most Shorted

Key takeaways

• Lithium shorts return: Short interest in lithium bellwether Pilbara Minerals has hit a five-month high, climbing from 11.5% in mid-May to 13.5%. This reflects renewed pessimism toward the lithium sector following persistent weakness in key price benchmarks, with Chinese lithium carbonate futures falling to four-year lows of 60,000 yuan per tonne and spodumene prices hovering around US$600 per tonne.

Rising Shorts

Key takeaways

• Retail pain drives shorting activity: Short sellers are betting on further deterioration at Adairs, which suffered a brutal 24.6% one-day selloff on 13 June after reporting sharply declining like-for-like sales. The retailer's sales dropped 2.5% over the past 16 weeks compared to 2.2% growth in the first seven weeks of 2H25, prompting management to slash FY25 EBIT guidance to $108-111 million — 18% below market expectations. Accent blamed tougher trading conditions and heightened promotional activity for squeezing gross margins by 80 basis points. Citi responded by slashing its target price from $2.61 to $1.67 while maintaining its Buy rating.

• Elsewhere, short sellers continued to bet against the embattled Monash IVF, Paladin Energy and select gold names.

Most covered

Key takeaways

• Luxury retail rout accelerates shorts: Cettire shares nearly halved over 12-13 June following an unexpectedly weak FY25 trading update that revealed sales growth of just 1.7% year-to-date. According to RBC Capital Markets, this implies fourth-quarter sales actually fell around 22% year-on-year. More concerning was the company's rapidly depleting cash position, which dropped from $76 million in March to just $45 million by May-end. The sharp decline in short interest may reflect short positions being recalled and/or profit taking.

• Karoon Energy shorts retreated as oil prices soared, while larger gold names like Evolution, Bellevue Gold (viewed as a potential takeover candidate), and Ramelius saw short interest decline