The Inghams Group Ltd (ASX: ING) share price has fallen in morning trade after the poultry supplier was forced to recall a line of products due to contamination.
The Inghams share price fell 1% to $4.44 compared to a 0.8% decline in the S&P/ASX 200 (Index:^AXJO) (ASX:XJO) index as worries about a trade war between US and China drag on global equity markets.
Inghams has worries of its own. The New South Wales Food Authority issued an urgent message to consumers to check the date of any Inghams Sweet Chili Chicken Kiev bought from Woolworths Group Ltd (ASX: WOW), according to News.com.au.
Bad news is good news to some
The product bought between 19 and 21 May could have plastic bits that can be a choking hazard to consumers.
The only ones that would be happy about the news are short-sellers as Inghams shares are most targeted stock on the ASX over the past month.
Short-sellers are those who borrow stock to sell on-market in the hope of buying it back at a lower price later. It's a way to profit from falling stock prices.
The proportion of shares that have been lent out to short-sellers (called short interest) surged a whopping 10.1 percentage points to 17.2% of its total shares on issue, according to the latest data from ASIC, which is always a week behind.
This is the biggest increase of all ASX stocks and Inghams is now the most shorted stock on our market.
Short-sellers stepping up their attack
To put this in perspective, the stock that recorded a second highest increase in short-interest is JB Hi-Fi Limited (ASX: JBH) with a 3.6 percentage point increase to 15.3%.
The data from ASIC is up to 17 May and doesn't take the federal election results into account. I suspect short-sellers have cut their bearish positions in the electrical and white goods retailer since the shock re-election of the Liberal-National Coalition, which wants to cut income taxes more aggressively (and that's good for consumer spending).
The stock with the third largest increase in short-interest is online jobs site SEEK Limited (ASX: SEK). The SEK share price has performed strongly recently after it gave a market update and announced a big investment in its online training platform.
Some bearish investors aren't taken with the stock due to growing macroeconomic headwinds and concerns that the investment could take longer than expected to pay off.
