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 within the last month.

 

The most shorted

Code Name Price (I) Short Interest (Shares) Short Interest 1 Month Chg % Market Cap
MYR MYER HOLDINGS LTD 0.2 82.41M 26.72 164.26M
GXY GALAXY RESOURCES LTD 0.79 67.09M -18.9 319.39M
NCZ NEW CENTURY RESOURCES LTD 0.15 57.35M -15.77 95.68M
INR IONEER LTD 0.17 55.95M -1.09 260.38M
SXY SENEX ENERGY LTD 0.21 55.83M -17.88 320.53M
FAR FAR LTD 0.02 54.75M 88.38 149.68M
CVN CARNARVON PETROLEUM LTD 0.17 54.29M -5.94 265.94M
CLQ CLEAN TEQ HOLDINGS LTD 0.19 38.83M -2.2 141.83M
PDN PALADIN ENERGY LTD 0.1 38.10M 10.79 212.93M
JMS JUPITER MINES LTD 0.25 34.06M 7.09 479.95M
MLX METALS X LTD 0.08 33.95M -4.87 72.58M
SPX SPECTRUM METALS LTD 0.13 32.19M 344493.91 187.27M
BUD BUDDY TECHNOLOGIES LTD 0.01 31.66M 43.21 23.83M
GEM G8 EDUCATION LTD 0.92 31.12M 1.75 455.16M
SWM SEVEN WEST MEDIA LTD 0.1 30.31M -17.22 149.19M
BGL BELLEVUE GOLD LTD 0.55 30.05M 4.08 364.90M
SXL SOUTHERN CROSS MEDIA GROUP L 0.14 29.94M 226.98 206.67M
AMA AMA GROUP LTD 0.39 29.12M 34.06 292.60M
AVZ AVZ MINERALS LTD 0.06 28.84M 339.18 141.34M
SYR SYRAH RESOURCES LTD 0.25 27.92M -62.45 97.42M
KAR KAROON ENERGY LTD 0.51 25.01M 40.6 284.79M
WAF WEST AFRICAN RESOURCES LTD 0.54 18.75M -14.04 470.14M
EWC ENERGY WORLD CORP LTD 0.07 18.20M -2.4 127.49M
GRR GRANGE RESOURCES LTD 0.22 17.30M -16.57 243.04M
STX STRIKE ENERGY LTD 0.13 16.77M 14.62 221.81M
IPD IMPEDIMED LTD 0.04 15.85M 3.02 31.57M
OML OOH!MEDIA LTD 0.85 15.68M 33.27 489.25M
SLC SUPERLOOP LTD 0.77 15.12M -1.75 296.35M
SPL STARPHARMA HOLDINGS LTD 1.07 14.37M 4.07 417.27M
AJM ALTURA MINING LTD 0.05 12.81M -47.86 130.10M
LNG LIQUEFIED NATURAL GAS LTD 0.05 12.57M -18.66 29.41M
PET PHOSLOCK ENVIRONMENTAL TECHN 0.54 12.44M -5.76 318.06M
EHE ESTIA HEALTH LTD 1.51 12.35M 40.11 406.28M
HT1 HT&E LTD 1.38 12.35M -8.14 393.18M
DCN DACIAN GOLD LTD 0.38 11.60M 1.96 102.79M
EHL EMECO HOLDINGS LTD 1.08 9.91M 56.28 407.25M
ALG ARDENT LEISURE GROUP LTD 0.38 9.62M -35.23 191.88M
AMI AURELIA METALS LTD 0.35 9.59M 9.71 319.00M
JHC JAPARA HEALTHCARE LTD 0.5 9.48M 10.6 133.62M
BOT BOTANIX PHARMACEUTICALS LTD 0.04 8.81M -25.71 33.07M
ECX ECLIPX GROUP LTD 0.73 8.02M -21.6 242.92M
FBR FBR LTD 0.03 7.08M -26.64 50.34M
MRM MMA OFFSHORE LTD 0.09 6.55M -77.98 81.46M
NVA NOVA MINERALS LTD 0.05 5.44M 3.83 48.19M
ARU ARAFURA RESOURCES LTD 0.07 5.02M -8.28 69.62M
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In the last fortnight, Myer (ASX:MYR) has been the most shorted ASX stock with 82 million in shorted shares. The company is currently partway through a month-long shutdown of its stores due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Several oil and gas stocks were again on the list. These included  Senex Energy (ASX:SXY), FAR (ASX:FAR) and Karoon Energy (ASX:KAR).

The reason? Oil prices are the lowest they’ve been this century.

Another target was Southern Cross Media (ASX:SXL), which owns the Austereo Radio Network. It is currently undertaking a big capital raise to get it through the COVID-19 epidemic and it has been shorted by nearly $30m — triple what it was a fortnight ago.

 

Newly shorted

Code Name Price (I) Short Interest (Shares) Short Interest 1 Month Chg Pct Market Cap
HLO HELLOWORLD TRAVEL LTD 1.4 164.81k 374,456.81 173.99M
SPX SPECTRUM METALS LTD 0.13 32.19M 344,493.91 187.27M
PSQ PACIFIC SMILES GROUP LTD 1.18 1.53k 153,200 179.35M
AAR ANGLO AUSTRALIAN RESOURCES 0.14 14.00k 69,900 67.32M
CCV CASH CONVERTERS INTL LTD 0.16 348.93k 16,492.06 95.55M
HCH HOT CHILI LTD 0.02 708.72k 11,292.33 39.99M
MYS MYSTATE LTD 3.76 644.81k 10,381.24 347.79M
BRV BIG RIVER GOLD LTD 0.02 38.52k 9,158.65 32.95M
MX1 MICRO-X LTD 0.16 55.86k 5,486.3 41.25M
MMI METRO MINING LTD 0.1 177.61k 4106.68 152.78M
CBR CARBON REVOLUTION LTD 1.57 347.76k 3657.14 214.66M
OMH OM HOLDINGS LTD 0.36 341.86k 3157.01 258.52M
CXL CALIX LTD 0.72 110.70k 2581.78 106.11M
TTT TITOMIC LTD 0.88 663.98k 1955.67 133.57M
OKU OKLO RESOURCES LTD 0.29 42.39k 1954.87 144.06M
FWD FLEETWOOD CORP LTD 1.56 58.52k 1766.07 141.44M
SXE SOUTHERN CROSS ELECTRICAL 0.41 89.18k 1608.35 106.47M
GRB GAGE ROADS BREWING CO 0.06 40.00k 1577.85 66.15M
BDC BARDOC GOLD LTD 0.07 186.55k 1005.96 94.91M
BMN BANNERMAN RESOURCES LTD 0.05 2.18M 991.38 46.59M
QHAL VAN VECT MSCI WRLD EX AU HGD 27.46 77.34k 745.26 134.57M
CCX CITY CHIC COLLECTIVE LTD 2.03 1.20M 670.39 402.88M
WLD WELLARD LTD 0.04 447.32k 651.27 23.38M
FRI FINBAR GROUP LTD 0.62 4.18k 450.66 168.72M
KTG K-TIG LTD 0.1 33.70k 441.05 14.32M
HMC HOME CONSORTIUM 2.2 5.41k 419.48 451.24M
SDG SUNLAND GROUP LTD 1.2 103.52k 412.39 165.66M
OSL ONCOSIL MEDICAL LTD 0.12 79.13k 406.64 68.26M
WZR WISR LTD 0.15 176.26k 403.71 152.52M
AFG AUSTRALIAN FINANCE GROUP LTD 1.51 50.00k 357.64 311.50M
BSX BLACKSTONE MINERALS LTD 0.15 47.80k 356.93 26.94M
TBR TRIBUNE RESOURCES LTD 5.85 15.52k 340.45 326.03M
AVZ AVZ MINERALS LTD 0.06 28.84M 339.18 141.34M
RDC REDCAPE HOTEL GROUP 0.63 658.47k 271.59 356.17M
MVF MONASH IVF GROUP LTD 0.81 3.18M 256.12 187.45M
360 LIFE360 INC-CDI 1.91 430.00k 230.77 279.73M
NGE NGE CAPITAL LTD 0.44 15.18k 230.03 16.18M
VEN VINTAGE ENERGY LTD 0.04 3.48M 228.99 11.49M
WXHG SPDR S&P WORLD EX AUS HEDGED 20.9 7.47k 227.68 88.70M
SXL SOUTHERN CROSS MEDIA GROUP L 0.14 29.94M 226.98 206.67M
PGL PROSPA GROUP LTD 0.94 6.28k 222.06 150.06M
EZL EUROZ LTD 0.84 75.75k 221.22 136.52M
ADT ADRIATIC METALS PLC-CDI 1.24 78.08k 220.68 224.05M
SMR STANMORE COAL LTD 1.02 461.04k 214.27 262.16M
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Helloworld Travel (ASX:HLO) has become a recent target. Like its peers, it is still operating but it is having to pay back money rather than receive commissions as global travel demand continues to decline.

In spite of the solid run the gold sector has seen recently, a couple of players in the sector were still shorted. One was Big River Gold (ASX:BRV), which has a project in Brazil where it is looking to kickstart production but is trying to find the money to do so.

Recent exploration success story Oklo Resources (ASX:OKU) also made the list of shorted stocks as it retraced to highs seen in February.

One of last year’s success stories, Spectrum Metals (ASX:SPX) is on the list despite currently being taken over by Ramelius Resources (ASX:RMS).

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