Short Selling

Which ASX stocks are shorters targeting and covering this week: Lithium, gold and tech

Wed 05 Jul 23, 12:32pm (AEST)
Bear Market - A graph showing large selling of global stock markets
Source: iStock

Key Points

  • Lake Resources falls out of the top 10 most shorted stocks (but its shares fell 43% last month)
  • Genesis Minerals experiences a slight rise in short interest, which coincides with recent share price weakness
  • Appen shorts begin to unwind as the stock gives back all of its AI-hype gains

Welcome back to the Short Seller Series, where we recap the most shorted stocks on the ASX as well as those experiencing notable rises, or falls, 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 data below refers to short interest changes for stocks between 19-28 June.


Most shorted stocks

Ticker

Company

Short %

Prev

% Chg

FLT

Flight Centre 

10.19%

10.50%

-0.31%

IEL

Idp Education 

9.43%

10.93%

-1.50%

CXO

Core Lithium

9.33%

9.00%

0.33%

LLC

Lendlease

7.88%

7.82%

0.06%

TPW

Temple & Webster

7.83%

7.71%

0.12%

AMA

AMA Group

7.82%

7.92%

-0.10%

SHV

Select Harvests

7.69%

7.52%

0.17%

JBH

JB Hi-Fi 

7.47%

7.52%

-0.05%

BRN

Brainchip Holdings

7.23%

7.33%

-0.10%


What’s changed

  • IDP Education shorts have eased to the lowest level since mid-June. 

  • Lake Resources fell from #3 to #15 this week. Its short interest is down around 3% since 19 June and at levels not seen since 17 April. That said, Lake shares fell 43% in June. Most of this decline can be attributed to its plans of a two phase development for its Kachi Brine Project in Argentina. 

LKE
Lake Resources 12-month price chart (Source: Market Index)

Where are shorters going?

The below table observes the stocks with the highest percentage change in short interest compared to the prior week.

Ticker

Company

Short %

Prev

% Chg

GMD

Genesis Minerals 

2.99%

1.23%

1.76%

CRN

Coronado Global

0.95%

0.27%

0.68%

TLG

Talga Group 

3.10%

2.43%

0.67%

AWC

Alumina 

5.74%

5.07%

0.67%

CMM

Capricorn Metals 

2.66%

2.04%

0.62%

AZJ

Aurizon Holdings 

2.47%

1.85%

0.62%

29M

29Metals

4.91%

4.32%

0.59%

IMM

Immutep 

1.10%

0.53%

0.57%

LYC

Lynas Rare Earths

4.42%

3.94%

0.48%


The rise in Genesis Minerals shorts coincided with a 12.7% decline in share price between 20-23 June. During this time, the company advised that its shareholders voted ‘overwhelmingly’ in favour of the acquisition of St Barbara’s (ASX: SBM) Leonora assets.

GMD
Genesis Minerals 12-month price chart (Source: Market Index)

Where are shorts covering?

Ticker

Company

Short %

Prev

% Chg

LKE

Lake Resources 

6.72%

9.72%

-3.00%

APX

Appen Ltd

4.36%

6.07%

-1.71%

IEL

Idp Education 

9.43%

10.93%

-1.50%

CCX

City Chic Collective 

1.50%

2.37%

-0.87%

BOQ

Bank of Queensland 

5.64%

6.35%

-0.71%

ACL

Australian Clinical Labs 

6.13%

6.82%

-0.69%

RMS

Ramelius Resources 

1.79%

2.38%

-0.59%

SBM

ST Barbara 

1.81%

2.31%

-0.50%


Appen shares have traded almost full circle – Briefly rallying more than 100% between 17 May and 2 June, and then tumbling 42% between 2-26 June.

APX
Appen 3-month price chart (Source: Market Index)

 

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Written By

Kerry Sun

Content Strategist

Kerry holds a Bachelor of Commerce from Monash University. He is an avid swing trader, focused on technical set ups and breakouts. Outside of writing and trading, Kerry is a big UFC fan, loves poker and training Muay Thai. Connect via LinkedIn or email.

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