Short sellers had a lucrative second quarter this year, managing to successfully bet against stocks even as the overall market continued to grind higher. Short sellers, who borrow and then sell stocks in a bid to make money from price declines, amassed $US10 billion in second-quarter paper profits, according to data from S3 Partners. Paper earnings from sectors such as industrials, health care and financials offset a $US15.
and Cloudflare Inc., which slid during the quarter. Short sellers’ ability to reap profit as the market rallied signals that investors are flocking to just a few megacap technology stocks amid an uncertain macroeconomic backdrop, leaving some areas of weakness in other sectors. The S&P 500 Index rose 3.9 per cent in the quarter that ended June 28, led by a nearly 37 per cent jump in shares of Nvidia. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 Index gained 7.8 per cent in the same period.