At the start of each week, I like to look at ASIC's short position report to find out which shares are being targeted by short sellers.
This is because I believe it is well worth keeping a close eye on short interest levels as high levels can sometimes be a sign that something isn't quite right with a company.
With that in mind, here are the 10 most shorted shares on the ASX this week according to ASIC:
- Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX: PLS) continues to be the most shorted ASX share with 18.5% of its shares held short again. Short sellers are betting approximately $2 billion on lithium prices and Pilbara Minerals shares continuing to fall.
- Syrah Resources Ltd (ASX: SYR) has a short interest of 17.4%, which is flat week on week. Short sellers don't appear to believe China curbing its graphite exports will have much impact on Syrah's performance.
- Core Lithium Ltd (ASX: CXO) has a short interest of 10.8%, which is up sharply week on week. This appears to have been driven by falling battery material prices.
- Genesis Minerals Ltd (ASX: GMD) has seen its short interest remain flat at 10.5%. Short sellers appear to believe this gold miner could be facing serious integration risks after recent acquisitions.
- IDP Education Ltd (ASX: IEL) has 9.8% of its shares held short, which is up slightly week on week. Short sellers have loaded up on this language testing company since it lost its monopoly in Canada.
- Appen Ltd (ASX: APX) has seen its short interest fall to 9.6%. Short sellers will have been celebrating last week after this artificial intelligence data services company needed to raise funds again at a huge discount. Its shares crashed afterwards.
- Sayona Mining Ltd (ASX: SYA) has 9.6% of its shares held short, which is up week on week. Short sellers appear to believe this lithium miner could also struggle due to falling battery materials prices.
- Flight Centre Travel Group Ltd (ASX: FLT) has 9.35% of its shares held short, which is down week on week. Revenue margin headwinds are likely to be why short sellers are targeting this travel agent.
- Bank of Queensland Ltd (ASX: BOQ) has a short interest of 8.5%, which is down from last week. Short sellers don't appear to believe this regional bank's performance will improve in the near term given the intense competition in mortgage loans.
- Mesoblast Ltd (ASX: MSB) has 8% of its shares held short, which is down week on week. This biotech has been struggling to gain approval for its stem cell therapies.
