After a challenging stretch for short selling, lithium companies have begun this year among the sharemarket’s most bet against stocks as prices for the battery metal sink and concerns increase that some will be left undercapitalised and unsustainable. Half of the market’s top 10 shorts are lithium-focused explorers or producers.
Among the other half are uranium developer Deep Yellow, which has an $800 million market capitalisation and hasn’t yet raised capital despite the commodity’s run, and $4.3 billion travel group Flight Centre, according to data published by the corporate regulator.But despite short-selling levels reaching as high as 20.75 per cent in the case of Pilbara Minerals – widely seen as a broader position on a, investors who run long-short portfolios warn this year could prove challenging for people taking bets that companies’ share prices will fall. “It’s not easy right now for anyone trying to short sell as the market is macro-driven, and we are in the early stages of a bull marke