If someone is betting heavily against a UK stock I either own, or plan to own, then I want to know about it. Luckily for me, all firms with a net short position greater than or equal to 0.1% of the issued share capital of a UK listed company have to report that position to the the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The FCA publishes a daily short position update based on the notifications that it receives.
The FCA’s daily short position update is an important source of information for those who invest in UK stocks. I tend to ignore most of the daily updates and focus on the Friday one. There a a few things I like to do with it. In this post I will be looking at the short position update from Friday, December 23, 2022.
Top 20 shorted UK stocks
The first thing I do is rank all the stocks by their net short position. To do this I add up all the short positions reported by different reporting institutions against the same stock. The top twenty most shorted UK stocks are tabulated below.
| Company | Net Short Position |
| Asos | 7.42% |
| ITM Power | 5.93% |
| Naked Wines | 5.79% |
| Kingfisher | 5.64% |
| BooHoo | 5.18% |
| abrdn | 4.61% |
| Petrofac | 4.40% |
| Travis Perkins | 4.37% |
| Hammerson | 4.31% |
| Sainsbury’s | 4.22% |
| Currys | 4.16% |
| Metro Bank | 4.07% |
| Fevertree Drinks | 3.97% |
| Victoria | 3.80% |
| Aston Martin Laguna | 3.60% |
| J.D. Wetherspoon | 3.49% |
| Primary Health Properties | 3.32% |
| Ocado Group | 3.30% |
| Cineworld | 3.29% |
| Ashmore Group | 3.26% |
Asos tops the list with a reported net short position of 7.42% against it. Asos is a £513m market cap consumer cyclical company, more specifically its in the retailers sector. Naked Wines is in third with a 5.79% net short position. Naked Wines is an £88m market cap retailer. Another retailer, £4.5bn market cap Kingfisher, is in fourth place with 5.64%. In fifth there is yet another retailer: BooHoo. There are another two retailers—Currys and Sainbury’s—in the top twenty, and if Ocado is considered a retailer, then its three. The short sellers don’t seem to be confident in the prospect of the retailers at the moment.
What a difference a week makes
Another thing I like to do with the Friday daily short position report is look at which stocks have had the biggest increases in net short positions against them over the last week, and month.
| Company | One-week Increase in Net Short Position | Change in Position Holders |
| Assura | 1.20% | +2 |
| Synthomer | 1.01% | +2 |
| Fergusson | 0.88% | +1 |
| Jupiter Fund Management | 0.81% | +1 |
| CMC Markets | 0.75% | +1 |
| Kingfisher | 0.71% | +1 |
| Frontier Developments | 0.63% | +1 |
| Moonpig Group | 0.62% | +1 |
| Marlowe Group | 0.61% | +1 |
| Halfords Group | 0.61% | +1 |
Assura is a £1.6bn market cap company operating in the real estate investment trusts sector and the short sellers have increased the reported net short position against it by 1.2% over the last week. This is the largest increase. Also, the number of position holders has increased by two.
One stock—Kingfisher—appeared on the top 20 most shorted UK stocks list, and also has seen a large increase (0.71%) in the net short position against it over the last week, with one additional reporting short seller joining in with betting against its price.
What’s changed over the last month?
Looking further back, over the last month, and a few things stand out. Petrofac is a services provider to the on- and off-shore oil and gas industry. Its net short position has increased by 2.14% over the last month, with two new position holders joining the fray.
| Company | One-Month Increase in Net Short Position | Change in Position Holders |
| Petrofac | 2.14% | +1 |
| Metro Bank | 1.38% | -1 |
| Savills | 1.34% | +2 |
| Smith (David S) Holdings | 1.33% | +2 |
| Auction Technology Group | 1.22% | +2 |
| Jupiter Fund Management | 1.03% | +1 |
| Serco Group | 0.89% | +1 |
| Micro Focus International | 0.86% | +1 |
| CMC Markets | 0.75% | +1 |
| Cineworld Group | 0.73% | 0 |
The case of CMC Markets is an interesting one. Its net short position has increased by 0.75% over the last month: enough to put it in the top ten list. But It also appears in the top ten list for one-week net short position increases.
DISCLAIMER: James J. McCombie owns shares in Kingfisher. The Storied Investor has no beneficial ownership position in any of the stocks mentioned.
The Storied Investor 