The 10 most shorted ASX stocks plus the biggest risers and fallers – Week 37
Reporting season misses drove short interest higher, while MSCI index deletions triggered a record unwind across four large caps.
Source: Shutterstock
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 24 and 31 August 2026
Month-on-month changes between 3 and 31 August 2026
Most covered and rising short tables record week-on-week changes of ~0.5% or more
Most Shorted
No major changes among the most shorted stocks, with CAR Group falling out of the top ten (more on that below) and PLS shorts continuing to build against a volatile backdrop for lithium prices.
Ticker | Company | Short % | Week-on-Week | Month-on-Month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Droneshield | 15.36% | 0.47% | 0.29% | |
Lotus Resources | 15.03% | 1.45% | 3.48% | |
4DMedical | 12.33% | -0.03% | -0.65% | |
Domino's Pizza | 12.04% | -0.29% | -0.40% | |
Treasury Wine Estates | 11.76% | -0.21% | 1.48% | |
PLS Group | 11.09% | 0.04% | 1.18% | |
Zip Co | 11.08% | 0.23% | 3.49% | |
Elders | 10.93% | 0.36% | 0.60% | |
Paladin Energy | 10.65% | -0.50% | -1.00% | |
Flight Centre | 10.55% | -0.28% | -1.03% |
Rising Shorts
Reporting season losers account for most of the large increases, nearly all following the same playbook of a weaker-than-expected result and a sharp on-the-day share price fall. Here are a few results of interest:
Siteminder (-11%, 25 Aug): FY26 revenue up 18.6% to $266.1m (2% miss), adjusted EBITDA up 96.5% to $28.1m (6% miss) on a 10.6% margin, and an adjusted net loss of $7.6m against a $4.9m expected loss. FY27 guidance flags meaningful margin expansion and ARR growth in the 20s cc/organic.
Tyro Payments (-5.1%, 25 Aug): FY26 gross profit up 5.3% to $231.8m (in line) and EBITDA up 8.6% to $66.9m (3% miss) on a 28.9% margin. FY27 gross profit guided to $240-255m and EBITDA margin to 28.5-30.5%, with the roughly $73m midpoint broadly in line.
Worley (-10.8%, 26 Aug): FY26 aggregated revenue flat at $12,023m (2% beat), underlying EBITA down 10.8% to $734m with margin down to 6.1%, underlying NPATA down 16.8% to $395m (4% beat) and a full-year dividend of 50cps unfranked (2% beat). The damage came from FY27 guidance of mid-to-high single digit growth in revenue and EBITA, well short of UBS at 15% and 19%.
Hansen Technologies (-21.1%, 19 Aug): FY26 revenue down 1.5% to $386.5m (3% miss), underlying EBITDA up 7.2% to $119.6m (1% miss) on a 31.0% margin (70bp beat) and underlying NPAT up 22.5% to $48.5m. FY27 revenue is guided broadly stable with an EBITDA margin above 26%, framed as an investment and transition year.
Ticker | Company | Short % | Week-on-Week | Month-on-Month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Siteminder | 6.01% | 2.75% | 3.27% | |
Generation Development Group | 5.09% | 1.50% | 0.86% | |
Lotus Resources | 15.03% | 1.45% | 3.48% | |
Steadfast Group | 2.54% | 1.29% | 1.07% | |
Tyro Payments | 5.64% | 1.28% | 2.05% | |
Worley | 2.96% | 1.15% | 1.34% | |
Hansen Technologies | 3.09% | 1.14% | 0.85% | |
Ingenia Communities Group | 3.71% | 0.96% | 0.85% | |
Meeka Metals | 3.26% | 0.93% | 1.26% | |
Magellan Financial Group | 4.25% | 0.91% | 1.27% | |
Nanosonics | 7.28% | 0.91% | 0.53% | |
Graincorp | 4.99% | 0.86% | 1.88% | |
Jumbo Interactive | 7.43% | 0.84% | 1.14% | |
EML Payments | 4.03% | 0.84% | 1.85% | |
Almonty Industries Inc | 2.24% | 0.84% | 1.46% | |
The Lottery Corporation | 6.14% | 0.79% | 1.78% | |
APA Group | 2.24% | 0.77% | 0.75% | |
AMP | 1.59% | 0.70% | 0.10% | |
Pexa Group | 5.86% | 0.70% | 1.58% | |
Cobram Estate Olives | 3.09% | 0.69% | 0.85% | |
AUB Group | 4.90% | 0.68% | -0.19% | |
Alliance Aviation Services | 0.77% | 0.68% | 0.58% | |
Transurban Group | 2.08% | 0.67% | 0.95% | |
Bendigo and Adelaide Bank | 5.04% | 0.67% | 1.54% | |
Arena REIT | 4.21% | 0.65% | 3.82% | |
Broken Hill Mines | 1.83% | 0.64% | 0.70% | |
Liontown | 4.18% | 0.62% | 0.59% | |
Wisetech Global | 9.09% | 0.59% | 0.81% | |
Qantas Airways | 1.36% | 0.58% | 0.63% | |
Sigma Healthcare | 3.93% | 0.56% | 0.43% | |
Clarity Pharmaceuticals | 8.81% | 0.56% | 0.07% | |
Endeavour Group | 8.92% | 0.51% | -0.23% | |
Breville Group | 8.82% | 0.51% | 0.91% |
Most Covered
Short positions in CAR Group, Cochlear, Sonic Healthcare and Stockland collapsed after all four were removed from the MSCI Australia large-cap index, announced on 12 August and effective at the close on 31 August. The shorting started well before the announcement, with some funds having expected the deletions at the May rebalance and carrying positions for longer than planned. Positions peaked on Friday 28 August at between 6% and 12% of shares on issue, record levels both by value and as a proportion of the register.
Dexus Industra REIT, IDP Education, Inghams, Alpha HPA, Objective Corp, Temple & Webster and Vulcan Steel were also bumped down into the microcap index.
Ticker | Company | Short % | Week-on-Week | Month-on-Month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
CAR Group | 5.11% | -6.97% | -6.37% | |
Cochlear | 2.33% | -6.86% | -7.28% | |
Sonic Healthcare | 1.16% | -6.85% | -6.61% | |
Stockland | 0.59% | -5.39% | -4.44% | |
Inghams Group | 3.49% | -2.49% | -1.92% | |
PWR Holdings | 2.31% | -2.03% | -4.14% | |
HMC Capital | 3.71% | -1.98% | -2.45% | |
Alpha HPA | 6.24% | -1.77% | -0.76% | |
Temple & Webster Group | 4.70% | -1.76% | -1.09% | |
Dexus Industria REIT | 0.64% | -1.70% | -1.11% | |
IDP Education | 2.90% | -1.68% | -0.48% | |
Pantoro Gold | 1.97% | -1.68% | -0.37% | |
Bapcor | 7.80% | -1.44% | -1.87% | |
Electro Optic Systems Holdings | 7.46% | -1.32% | 0.51% | |
Ramsay Health Care | 4.35% | -1.16% | -1.27% | |
Vulcan Steel | 0.45% | -1.13% | -0.94% | |
Corporate Travel Management | 4.24% | -1.11% | -1.87% | |
Iress | 1.84% | -1.10% | 1.15% | |
Guzman Y GOMEZ | 6.44% | -0.99% | -2.34% | |
Alcoa Corporation | 1.32% | -0.86% | -0.20% | |
Objective Corporation | 0.47% | -0.77% | -0.57% | |
Wildcat Resources | 0.11% | -0.72% | -0.42% | |
Australian Strategic Materials | 0.53% | -0.61% | -0.73% | |
Australian Clinical Labs | 4.89% | -0.59% | -1.20% | |
Genesis Minerals | 8.83% | -0.58% | -0.73% | |
Brightstar Resources | 1.27% | -0.58% | -0.65% | |
Beach Energy | 7.41% | -0.55% | -0.77% | |
Lovisa Holdings | 2.60% | -0.54% | -0.67% | |
Polynovo | 8.17% | -0.53% | -1.34% | |
Iluka Resources | 6.13% | -0.51% | -0.88% | |
ST Barbara | 4.37% | -0.51% | -0.02% | |
Paladin Energy | 10.65% | -0.50% | -1.00% |
