ASIC probes ‘naked’ short selling
John Kehoe
Australian Financial Review, 23 March 2020
The securities regulator is looking out for illegal “naked” short selling by stock traders, in response to a rise in the number of investors failing to settle share trades during the recent financial market turbulence.
Naked short selling is illegal, and occurs when a short seller has executed a trade without a securities lending arrangement with a third party.
Companies with notable net short sales of their stock include Galaxy Resources (19 per cent), Syrah Resources (17.5 per cent), Metcash (13 per cent), Inghams Group (12.6 per cent), JB Hi-Fi (9.5 per cent), Costa Group (8.8 per cent), Myer (8.3 per cent), Perpetual (8.2 per cent), Bega Cheese (8 per cent), Bank of Queensland (7.8 per cent), Blackmores (7.8 per cent), Bendigo and Adelaide Bank (7.7 per cent), Webjet (7.7 per cent), Flight Centre (6.5 per cent), Kogan (6.5 per cent), Domino’s Pizza (6.2 per cent), Seek (6.2 per cent) and AMP (6.2 per cent) as of March 17, according to ASIC data.
