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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 to be the most shorted ASX share after its short interest increased to 16%. Last week, the lithium miner reported a sharp decline in the average realised price of its lithium.
- Syrah Resources Ltd (ASX: SYR) has short interest of 14.3%, which is up sharply week on week. Short sellers may be regretting this one. News that China is planning to curb graphite exports put a rocket under Syrah's shares last week.
- Genesis Minerals Ltd (ASX: GMD) has seen its short interest rise again to 11.2%. Short sellers appear concerned by the gold miner's acquisition spree.
- Core Lithium Ltd (ASX: CXO) has a short interest of 10.8%, which is up week on week again. Concerns over falling lithium prices continue to weigh on sentiment.
- Appen Ltd (ASX: APX) has seen its short interest rise to 9.5%. Short sellers appear to believe this struggling artificial intelligence data services company's performance won't improve any time soon.
- Flight Centre Travel Group Ltd (ASX: FLT) has 9.3% of its shares held short, which is down slightly week on week. Short sellers appear to believe the market is expecting too much from Flight Centre due to revenue margin headwinds.
- Sayona Mining Ltd (ASX: SYA) has 9.2% of its shares held short, which is up week on week. This also appears to be due to fears that lithium prices could continue to fall in the coming years because of an oversupply of the white metal.
- IDP Education Ltd (ASX: IEL) has 9.2% of its shares held short, which is down slightly week on week. This appears to have been driven by concerns over the loss of the company's monopoly in Canada and visa changes in Australia.
- Bank of Queensland Ltd (ASX: BOQ) has a short interest of 8.6%, which is down since last week. The team at Goldman Sachs believes the regional bank could struggle due to inflationary pressure on costs and weak volume momentum.
- Mesoblast Ltd (ASX: MSB) has sneaked back into the top ten with 8% of its shares held short. This biotechnology company continues to burn through cash after facing further delays in gaining FDA approval.
