DATA INSIGHTS

The 10 most shorted ASX stocks – Week 19

A recap of the most heavily shorted stocks on the ASX and those experiencing significant changes to short interest over the past week.

Managing Editor
8 May 2024
This article is more than 12 months old and may be outdated
2 min read
The 10 most shorted ASX stocks – Week 19

Source: Shutterstock

Mentioned

KEY POINTS

  • Little movement at the top, with Pilbara Minerals, IDP Education and Syrah Resources still the top three most shorted stocks on the ASX
  • Pilbara Minerals' short interest up on the month, down on the week
  • Westgold is the big mover form a month ago, with short interest up 4%+ to crack the top 10

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 compare:

  • Week-on-week (WoW % Chg) changes between 24 April and 1 May

  • Month-on-month (MoM % Chg) changes between 2 April and 1 May

Most Shorted ASX Companies

Ticker
Company
Short %
WoW % Chg
MoM % Chg
PLS
PILBARA MIN LTD ORDINARY
21.790
-0.021
1.159
IEL
IDP EDUCATION LTD ORDINARY
16.181
0.068
2.050
SYR
SYRAH RESOURCES ORDINARY
13.053
-0.276
-0.685
FLT
FLIGHT CENTRE TRAVEL ORDINARY
11.791
-0.096
1.739
LTR
LIONTOWN RESOURCES ORDINARY
10.919
0.015
0.816
CXO
CORE LITHIUM ORDINARY
8.257
0.010
-0.180
SYA
SAYONA MINING LTD ORDINARY
8.146
0.057
0.912
WGX
WESTGOLD RESOURCES. ORDINARY
8.005
0.523
4.609
BOQ
BANK OF QUEENSLAND. ORDINARY
7.365
-0.010
0.516
STX
STRIKE ENERGY LTD ORDINARY
7.342
0.026
0.414
The most shorted companies on the ASX. Source: ASIC

Key themes and takeaways

The top five most shorted stocks remain unchanged compared to last week. In the last month, the only change in the top five is that Flight Centre Travel (ASX: FLT) and Liontown Resources (ASX: LTR) have switched places in the number 4 and 5 spots.

Pilbara Minerals' (ASX: PLS) short interest has ticked up to 21.79% from 20.63% at the beginning of the month. Short interest in Idp Education (ASX: IEL) has also picked, up 2% over the month, as the share price has continued to slide.

Idp Education (ASX-IEL) chart 8 May 2024
IEL six-month chart (Source: Market Index)

Westgold Resources (ASX: WGX) was the big mover, jumping into the top 10 as short interest surged more than 4.5% over the month. The pickup in short interest followed the third quarter production update in early April, which coincided with a sharp fall in the share price.

Westgold Resources (ASX-IEL) chart 8 May 2024
WGX six-month chart (Source: Market Index)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Managing Editor

Chris is the Managing Editor at Livewire Markets and Market Index. His passion is equity research, portfolio construction, and investment education. He is also very keen on the powerful processes that can help all investors identify great opportunities and outperform the market, and wants to bring them to life and share them with you.

19/07/2026