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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 its long run as the most shorted ASX share with short interest 19%, which is down slightly week on week. Short sellers are betting heavily on lithium prices remaining lower for longer and weighing on Pilbara Minerals' profitability.
- Boss Energy Ltd (ASX: BOE) has 15.4% of its share held short. This is flat since last week. Short sellers have been targeting most uranium miners on the Australian share market. They appear convinced that the uranium bull market will disappoint.
- IDP Education Ltd (ASX: IEL) has 14.9% of its shares held short, which is up week on week once again. This language testing and student placement company's shares are down sharply over the past 12 months amid challenging trading conditions due to student visa changes in key markets.
- Paladin Energy Ltd (ASX: PDN) has short interest of 14.9%. This is up sharply since last week. Short sellers have been adding to their positions after the uranium stock disappointed the market with a poor quarterly update.
- Syrah Resources Ltd (ASX: SYR) has seen its short interest remain flat week on week at 13%. This graphite miner continues to burn though its cash reserves as it battles low prices and operational suspensions. Though, it has shored up its balance sheet with a US$150 million binding loan agreement with the United States International Development Finance Corporation.
- Mineral Resources Ltd (ASX: MIN) has short interest of 10.3%, which is up week on week. Short sellers have increased their positions after the mining and mining services company released the results of an investigation into allegations against its founder and CEO, Chris Ellison. This culminated in Ellison announcing plans to step down as its leader.
- Liontown Resources Ltd (ASX: LTR) has 10% of its shares held short, which is down slightly week on week. Short sellers have done well with this one. The lithium miner's shares are down 50% since this time last year.
- Deep Yellow Limited (ASX: DYL) has 9.9% of its shares held short, which is flat week on week. This is another uranium stock that short sellers are going after.
- Lynas Rare Earths Ltd (ASX: LYC) has seen its short interest remain flat at 9.9%. This appears to have been driven by concerns over weak rare earths prices.
- Domino's Pizza Enterprises Ltd (ASX: DMP) has short interest of 9.1%, which is up week on week. Last week, this pizza chain operator's long-serving CEO revealed that he would be stepping down.
