The Short Report

Summary:

Week ending July 9, 2020

Last week saw the ASX200 peak out over 6000 before dropping back as Melbourne went back into lockdown.

As is evident on the table below, short activity at this time continues to simply dry up. There are now only eight stocks shorted by 7% or more. Typically there’d be at least eight stocks shorted by 10% or more.

It’s a tad more crowded in the 5-7% range, but realistically it’s the same set of stocks shuffling around a bit each week, occasionally falling out of the table and then returning, such as AMA Group ((AMA)) and Bubs Australia ((BUB)) last week.

There has been little in the way of “new players” in weeks.

The only stock to see a short position change of one percentage point or more last week was Mesoblast ((MSB)), in at 6.0% from below 5%, but it, too, has been popping in and out at the low end recently.

The stem cell specialist is no longer covered by FNArena brokers and has been a big mover of late, surging in April after announcing its remestemcel-L product could be used for treating covid-infected children having cardiovascular and other complications.

The stock has more recently come off the boil, and all biotechs have been volatile at this time as one might imagine.

No Movers & Shakers this week.

Weekly short positions as a percentage of market cap:

10%+
MYR   12.6
WEB   10.9

No changes

9.0-9.9

ING

No changes

8.0-8.9%

NEA, BOQ, GXY

No changes

7.0-7.9%

CUV, ORE

Out: JBH, FXL

6.0-6.9%

FNP, JBH, FXL, MTS, PGH, SUL, SGM, SXL, PPT, FLT, PLS, MSB

In: JBH, FXL, SUL, MSB, FLT                    Out: SEK, LOV

5.0-5.9%

ALG, IVC, SEK, CLH, CTD, BIN, IFL, Z1P, LYC, BUB, AMA, LOV

In: SEK, LOV, BUB, AMA              Out: FLT, SUL, CLQ

Movers & Shakers

See above. 

ASX20 Short Positions (%)

CODE LAST WEEK WEEK BEFORE CODE LAST WEEK WEEK BEFORE
ALL 4.4 4.3 NCM 0.8 0.4
ANZ 0.7 0.7 RIO 2.1 2.2
BHP 4.1 4.1 SCG 0.8 0.6
BXB 0.2 0.1 SUN 0.5 0.5
CBA 0.5 0.5 TCL 0.6 0.7
CSL 0.2 0.1 TLS 0.4 0.2
GMG 0.4 0.5 WBC 0.8 0.7
IAG 0.7 0.7 WES 0.5 0.5
MQG 0.2 0.2 WOW 0.3 0.3
NAB 0.8 0.7 WPL 1.3 1.1

To see the full Short Report, please go to this link.

About Greg Peel

Greg Peel joined Macquarie Bank in 1986 and acquired trading experience in equities, currency, fixed income and commodities derivatives, ultimately being appointed director of equity derivatives trading. He later published In With The Smart Money (a plain English guide to the mysterious world of financial markets and derivatives) and acted as a consultant to boutique investment funds. In 2004 Greg joined FNArena as a contributing writer. He is now a director and principal of the company. Greg compliments the journalistic background of the FNArena team with lengthy experience as a financial markets proprietary trader.

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