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

Code Name Price (I) Short Interest Short Interest 1M Change % Market Cap
TNT TESSERENT LTD 0.25 1.97M 10656.11 163.69M
G1A GALENA MINING LTD 0.25 1.47M 4827.74 113.15M
NTU NORTHERN MINERALS LTD 0.03 1.87M 2628.41 133.03M
BDC BARDOC GOLD LTD 0.08 1.30M 2381.9 136.74M
DXN DXN LTD 0.03 1.32M 980.01 26.39M
SVL SILVER MINES LTD 0.23 6.97M 898.83 239.84M
HCH HOT CHILI LTD 0.04 6.19M 774.1 98.48M
PCK PAINCHEK LTD 0.09 1.25M 717.04 102.54M
KAI KAIROS MINERALS LTD 0.04 1.37M 620.03 65.05M
IMU IMUGENE LTD 0.05 3.58M 548.95 224.41M
RVR RED RIVER RESOURCES LTD 0.13 5.72M 144.63 67.11M
VEN VINTAGE ENERGY LTD 0.09 1.21M 140.14 30.17M
AMI AURELIA METALS LTD 0.51 7.89M 124.54 445.73M
ELO ELMO SOFTWARE LTD 5.43 1.27M 109.75 465.14M
TTM TITAN MINERALS LTD 0.12 4.15M 79.04 132.34M
SVY STAVELY MINERALS LTD 0.52 1.94M 72.27 128.59M
BLG BLUGLASS LTD 0.08 1.40M 68.23 77.02M
AD8 AUDINATE GROUP LTD 5.1 1.59M 46.95 387.93M
SYR SYRAH RESOURCES LTD 0.38 19.17M 29.8 159.72M
NVA NOVA MINERALS LTD 0.08 8.73M 29.03 127.26M
WGN WAGNERS HOLDING CO LTD 1.14 1.02M 25.14 213.40M
OSP OSPREY MEDICAL INC-CDI 0.03 14.88M 22.76 37.47M
SGF SG FLEET GROUP LTD 1.7 1.15M 22.55 445.67M
NCZ NEW CENTURY RESOURCES LTD 0.15 42.80M 16.46 146.79M
EHL EMECO HOLDINGS LTD 0.85 11.58M 16.26 424.72M
EVS ENVIROSUITE LTD 0.19 3.91M 16.19 199.81M
DCN DACIAN GOLD LTD 0.33 8.05M 15.53 183.65M
OCC ORTHOCELL LTD 0.42 1.41M 14.91 77.61M
STX STRIKE ENERGY LTD 0.22 20.07M 14.65 378.49M
SWM SEVEN WEST MEDIA LTD 0.12 36.06M 13.82 176.87M
SDV SCIDEV LTD 0.68 1.13M 12.79 102.75M
AMS ATOMOS LTD 0.65 1.86M 9.64 142.69M
KAR KAROON ENERGY LTD 0.76 22.22M 7 420.64M
VRT VIRTUS HEALTH LTD 3.49 1.08M 5.08 280.56M
MRM MMA OFFSHORE LTD 0.04 6.40M 3.79 36.10M
DCG DECMIL GROUP LTD 0.05 13.91M 3.36 60.51M
FBR FBR LTD 0.06 7.23M 3.03 124.72M
BUB BUBS AUSTRALIA LTD 0.83 29.88M 2.59 478.16M
SXL SOUTHERN CROSS MEDIA GROUP L 0.16 121.42M 2.48 409.53M
PDN PALADIN ENERGY LTD 0.16 46.35M 2.36 314.32M
SLC SUPERLOOP LTD 1.1 10.99M 1.17 402.45M
RAP RESAPP HEALTH LTD 0.12 1.26M 0.14 90.61M
AJM ALTURA MINING LTD 0.07 1.20M 0 209.04M
LNU LINIUS TECHNOLOGIES LTD 0.03 1.31M 0 33.33M
CE1 CALIMA ENERGY LTD 0.01 4.53M 0 19.51M
AIS AERIS RESOURCES LTD 0.06 3.04M 0 108.13M
CVN CARNARVON PETROLEUM LTD 0.19 57.57M -0.18 297.23M
IPD IMPEDIMED LTD 0.07 13.67M -0.28 72.45M
EWC ENERGY WORLD CORP LTD 0.06 16.44M -0.3 104.15M
RDC REDCAPE HOTEL GROUP 0.82 2.57M -0.31 452.80M
CBR CARBON REVOLUTION LTD 1.83 1.19M -0.43 266.97M
ADI APN INDUSTRIA REIT 2.53 2.24M -0.52 499.74M
RIC RIDLEY CORP LTD 0.75 1.86M -1.01 238.07M
MLX METALS X LTD 0.08 21.75M -1.44 73.49M
HT1 HT&E LTD 1.4 8.76M -1.52 391.78M
VHT VOLPARA HEALTH TECHNOLOGIES 1.33 2.90M -1.54 333.57M
IGL IVE GROUP LTD 0.8 2.91M -2.05 118.57M
MHJ MICHAEL HILL INTERNATIONAL L 0.35 1.32M -2.18 137.68M
BOE BOSS RESOURCES LTD 0.08 3.07M -2.59 125.53M
SXY SENEX ENERGY LTD 0.31 47.42M -2.77 452.01M
INR IONEER LTD 0.1 52.32M -2.83 164.83M
AMA AMA GROUP LTD 0.6 38.12M -3.29 440.34M
ZNO ZOONO GROUP LTD 1.91 3.10M -3.93 313.32M
CLQ CLEAN TEQ HOLDINGS LTD 0.24 34.74M -4.14 179.15M
MOC MORTGAGE CHOICE LTD 0.77 1.50M -5.01 96.87M
ISU ISELECT LTD 0.29 1.69M -5.08 64.86M
WPP WPP AUNZ LTD 0.31 1.60M -8.71 264.17M
MYR MYER HOLDINGS LTD 0.26 90.02M -8.76 217.64M
JHC JAPARA HEALTHCARE LTD 0.44 4.25M -12.39 116.25M
REG REGIS HEALTHCARE LTD 1.19 4.58M -12.75 357.89M
ALG ARDENT LEISURE GROUP LTD 0.42 25.95M -14.07 201.48M
BUD BUDDY TECHNOLOGIES LTD 0.07 15.60M -17.2 179.48M
LVT LIVETILES LTD 0.22 2.96M -21.99 203.00M
MNY MONEY3 CORP LTD 2.07 2.06M -24.03 383.54M
BET BETMAKERS TECHNOLOGY GROUP L 0.49 1.03M -27.84 289.62M
ATS AUSTRALIS OIL & GAS LTD 0.03 2.11M -32.91 24.65M
FAR FAR LTD 0.01 14.03M -35.32 109.77M
HAS HASTINGS TECHNOLOGY METALS L 0.13 7.76M -35.51 143.48M
ASM AUSTRALIAN STRATEGIC MATERIA 2.06 1.37M -36.19 245.24M
PET PHOSLOCK ENVIRONMENTAL TECHN 0.24 7.30M -48.69 150.00M
ECX ECLIPX GROUP LTD 1.48 3.31M -52.4 471.46M
TUA TUAS LTD 0.55 1.04M -70.32 252.83M
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The biggest targets are in tech

The stock that has seen the biggest short interest increase is cybersecurity company Tesserent (ASX:TNT).

After sitting at 5c in the middle of June, it surged as high as 29c in August on the back of revenue growth and acquisitions, as well as industry hype sparked by government investment into the sector.

A number of other tech stocks witnessed increased short interest, including data centre operator DXN (ASX:DXN), HR tech stock Elmo Software (ASX:ELO) and semiconductor stock Bluglass (ASX:BLG).

Bluglass has also rallied in recent weeks. In July it announced the launch of a commercial-scale platform for its patented manufacturing process.

But the broader industry has been caught up in the US-China trade war, which after months of bubbling under the surface poked its head up last week to rattle the market and send many of Blueglass’ peers down.

Also heavily shorted in recent days is PainChek (ASX:PCK). The company has been unable to replicate the solid year it had in 2019 as one of the health sector’s biggest winners.

 

Resources targets

In resources, Silver Mines (ASX:SVL) and Galena Mining (ASX:G1A)— two stocks with exposure to silver — both saw increased short interest volumes again.

Silver Mines is a pure play exposure with one of the largest undeveloped silver deposits in the world, while Galena is primarily a base metals play with exposure to silver at its project.

Other shorters’ targets include West Australian gold play Bardoc (ASX:BDC) and rare earths play Northern Minerals (ASX:NTU).

Although rare earths has been notably immune from trade tensions between Australia and China so far, Northern Minerals’ project spent five months on care and maintenance due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Last week it told shareholders it had partially restarted operations at its Browns Range heavy rare earth project, with research and development testwork again underway.