The Lake Resources NL (ASX: LKE) share price is lifting higher in afternoon trade on Tuesday.
At the time of writing, the ASX lithium share is swapping hands at 72.5 cents apiece, 5.07% in the green. Investors have bid the share higher on no news.
In broader market moves, the S&P/ASX 300 Metals and Mining Index (ASX: XMM) is up around 1.75% on the day.
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What's behind the Lake Resources share price?
Curiously, the share has routinely found itself on the most shorted ASX shares list over the past few weeks.
This occurred up until yesterday when Lake had short interest of 9.2%, placing it on the list of the top 10 most shorted shares.
Prior to this, Lake had caught a bid on 19 July after shrugging off research from notorious short-bias firm J Capital.
Lake had pushed back on claims in a J Capital report that it had "put forth incorrect information on technical matters".
Noteworthy is the price of lithium as well. It continues to remain buoyant as many other commodity prices fall.
Trading Economics reports:
Lithium carbonate prices in China moved sideways at the 475,500 yuan/tonne (A$101,145/tonne) level through July, remaining near the record-high of 500,000 (A$106,356) from March and 430% higher year-on-year as demand continued to increase.
As seen on the chart below, the Lake Resources share price and the price of lithium tend to track each other closely. Returns since March 2022 are plotted on the chart below.
Meanwhile, Lake Resources is rated as a buy from 100% of the brokers covering the share, according to Refinitiv Eikon data.
The consensus price target from this list is $2.56 per share, suggesting considerable upside potential from the current market price should these brokers be correct.
In the past 12 months, the Lake Resources share price has held onto a 75% gain, despite a 28% loss this year to date.
