Short Monitor – Premier Oil remains most shorted stock in March

We have looked at shorting activity in the UK market throughout March in the latest update of our short monitor, with the chart below showing the top 20 most shorted stocks in terms of % of issued share capital, at present.

The top 20 companies of the UK’s most shorted stocks have not changed between February and March.

• Despite a -2.7% change in the short position of Premier Oil, the biggest movement in the top 20, it remains the UK’s most shorted stock in March at 11.4%. Also notable is oil services company Petrofac, showing a 1.4% increase to 9.4%, the second biggest change in the top 20 stocks chart.
• Aside from Premier Oil and Petrofac, the top 20 UK short stocks saw very little movement in March. Three companies (Tullow Oil, Petropavlovsk and Network International Holdings) saw no change at all, whilst only Petrofac, Hammerson and Domino’s Pizza Group saw an increase in their short position over the month.
• March saw a reduction in the average number of weekly short declarations at 76, compared with an average of 101 in February.