Short & Caught is Stockhead’s fortnightly recap of which ASX small cap stocks are heavily shorted. Stocks that are shorted have investors betting that they fall.

Shorting works by selling stocks you do not actually own in the hope of buying them back at a lower price.

Because shorting is restricted under Australian law, any substantial shorting of stocks is worth knowing about even if you own these stocks and only trade long.

Stockhead’s two preferred metrics are raw short interest as well as percentage changes in them within the last month.

 

The most shorted

Graphite miner Syrah Resources (ASX:SYR) and lithium miner Galaxy Resources (ASX:GXY) swapped places as the first and second most shorted ASX small caps.

There was movement immediately below these stocks. Most notably, Carnarvon Petroleum (ASX:CVN) is now in 4th spot with nearly 54 million share shorted.

Robot home builder FBR (ASX:FBR) has now been shorted to the tune of 11.7 million shares – more than double a month ago after its latest capital raise.

Other beaten up stocks that continued to be shorted were Botanix Pharmaceuticals (ASX:BOT), which has not recovered from a poor clinical trial on its anti-acne cream, and satellite builder Speedcast (ASX:SDA).

Prior to its revenue downgrades, Speedcast was an ASX200 company.

Code Name Price (I) Short Interest (Shares) Short Interest 1 Month Chg Pct Market Cap
GXY GALAXY RESOURCES LTD 0.91 70.97M 7.66 386.96M
SYR SYRAH RESOURCES LTD 0.45 65.43M -5.79 194.34M
MYR MYER HOLDINGS LTD 0.49 58.03M -0.31 398.32M
CVN CARNARVON PETROLEUM LTD 0.31 53.85M 6.05 484.96M
NCZ NEW CENTURY RESOURCES LTD 0.28 52.36M 15.93 178.60M
INR IONEER LTD 0.19 51.09M 9.64 318.94M
FAR FAR LTD 0.04 46.78M 6.84 270.06M
CLQ CLEAN TEQ HOLDINGS LTD 0.2 40.77M -3.17 153.02M
MLX METALS X LTD 0.1 35.54M -14.22 95.26M
JMS JUPITER MINES LTD 0.26 32.66M -1.47 489.75M
SDA SPEEDCAST INTERNATIONAL LTD 0.77 32.59M 8.52 181.00M
AJM ALTURA MINING LTD 0.05 28.90M 2.72 136.29M
MRM MMA OFFSHORE LTD 0.17 28.28M -0.02 157.37M
LNG LIQUEFIED NATURAL GAS LTD 0.21 27.45M -7.4 121.09M
WAF WEST AFRICAN RESOURCES LTD 0.39 23.03M 35.23 330.78M
GRR GRANGE RESOURCES LTD 0.24 22.88M -7.07 277.76M
EWC ENERGY WORLD CORP LTD 0.08 18.35M 2.8 132.88M
BGL BELLEVUE GOLD LTD 0.51 17.66M 38.8 293.51M
BOT BOTANIX PHARMACEUTICALS LTD 0.09 16.27M 13.63 92.41M
DCN DACIAN GOLD LTD 1.47 14.62M -11.37 328.00M
SPL STARPHARMA HOLDINGS LTD 1.32 13.58M 18.07 474.92M
HT1 HT&E LTD 1.62 13.18M -0.39 456.86M
SLC SUPERLOOP LTD 0.94 13.17M 9.68 347.57M
BUD BUDDY TECHNOLOGIES LTD 0.03 11.95M 121.26 66.65M
FBR FBR LTD 0.05 11.72M 103.06 74.57M
PET PHOSLOCK ENVIRONMENTAL TECHN 0.87 7.84M -6.51 485.89M
CLH COLLECTION HOUSE LTD 1.06 7.74M -28.83 148.34M
LVT LIVETILES LTD 0.28 7.27M 18.39 240.92M
PDN PALADIN ENERGY LTD 0.09 7.14M 6.36 182.51M
IPD IMPEDIMED LTD 0.19 7.11M 1.47 94.30M
AMI AURELIA METALS LTD 0.41 6.72M 34.16 362.47M
MSV MITCHELL SERVICES LTD 0.06 6.70M 39.73 115.56M
OEL OTTO ENERGY LTD 0.04 6.60M 347.94 83.66M
PNL PARINGA RESOURCES LTD 0.04 6.00M 5405305.5 27.21M
CGB CANN GLOBAL LTD 0.01 5.94M 59.68 48.01M
NVA NOVA MINERALS LTD 0.04 5.89M -21.89 34.49M
JHC JAPARA HEALTHCARE LTD 1.03 5.33M 24.28 273.93M
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The newly shorted

While the number of stocks with over 6 million shorted shares have grown slowly over time, the short interest against Paringa Resources (ASX:PNL) shot up 5.4 million per cent in the last month to 6 million.

The Kentucky-focused coal miner has begun sales of its coal, making $US5.7 million in revenue but has needed to raise finance multiple times in recent months.

Child-tracking app Life360 (ASX:360) is another stock with recent shorting pressure. Having lost 43 per cent since its early-May IPO, it is one of the few flops in the IPO market in 2019.

One stock on this list that has done well in 2019 is Stavely Minerals (ASX:SVY). The Victoria-focused copper explorer became a five-bagger off the back of a 40 per cent copper hit. But it is a new target for shorters, having just fallen below $1.

Prospa (ASX:PGL) has also been targeted following a hefty profit downgrade last month.

Code Name Price (I) Short Interest (Shares) Short Interest 1 Month Chg Pct Market Cap
PNL PARINGA RESOURCES LTD 0.04 6.00M 5,405,305.5 27.21M
360 LIFE360 INC-CDI 2.83 130.00k 866,566.69 417.80M
RAP RESAPP HEALTH LTD 0.25 379.00k 68,684.03 174.06M
PPK PPK GROUP LTD 5.2 13.58k 61,618.18 428.93M
SVY STAVELY MINERALS LTD 0.98 388.09k 27,268.9 214.87M
SMR STANMORE COAL LTD 1.08 50.27k 25,546.94 268.90M
VR8 VANADIUM RESOURCES LTD 0.03 954.80k 24,849.05 9.73M
AHF AUSTRALIAN DAIRY NUTRITIONALS 0.10 740.59k 9,733.94 37.10M
MGC MG UNIT TRUST 0.43 221.37k 7,772.26 243.32M
AGH ALTHEA GROUP HOLDINGS LTD 0.37 551.94k 5,178.22 83.99M
HAS HASTINGS TECHNOLOGY METALS L 0.14 1.00M 5,049.86 135.99M
PGL PROSPA GROUP LTD 1.83 204.77k 4,405.28 291.24M
EEG EMPIRE ENERGY GROUP LTD 0.44 331.26k 3,565.6 116.84M
MML MEDUSA MINING LTD 0.69 34.67k 2,760.73 140.26M
BET BETMAKERS TECHNOLOGY GROUP L 0.14 128.70k 1,939.59 63.92M
COI COMET RIDGE LTD 0.18 1.11M 1,457.81 136.59M
GSW GETSWIFT LTD 0.46 752.13k 856.6 81.08M
PAN PANORAMIC RESOURCES LTD 0.34 589.86k 781.28 215.90M
SZL SEZZLE INC-CDI 2.24 68.41k 664.47 445.13M
AGY ARGOSY MINERALS LTD 0.08 2.00M 487.44 82.42M
ISD ISENTIA GROUP LTD 0.26 3.20k 459.09 52.00M
OEL OTTO ENERGY LTD 0.04 6.60M 347.94 83.66M
CDV CARDINAL RESOURCES LTD 0.29 20.95k 337.46 145.74M
AC8 AUSCANN GROUP HOLDINGS LTD 0.19 119.13k 302.5 58.65M
RED RED 5 LTD 0.28 755.10k 268.16 342.40M
AVZ AVZ MINERALS LTD 0.05 4.57M 267.44 103.69M
CLV CLOVER CORP LTD 2.43 3.73k 266.47 415.78M
VVA VIVA LEISURE LTD 3.02 65.87k 254.49 181.64M
TBR TRIBUNE RESOURCES LTD 5.93 1.69k 226.83 332.46M
TLG TALGA RESOURCES LTD 0.44 73.05k 219.53 108.42M
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