Despite the recent rise in Chinese stocks listed in the US, the short sellers are not eager to close their positions. If the market continues to rise, analysts expect a significant short squeeze to further boost stock prices.
Since the "924" new policy, the Chinese concept stock market has seen dramatic fluctuations. Today, the ftse china a50 index futures surged over 9%. The csi 300 index has risen by more than 27% from the low point on September 13, while the nasdaq Golden Dragon Index has soared by over 36%.
According to a report from S3 Partners, shorts have accumulated losses of $6.9 billion in this market, wiping out about $3.7 billion in profits for shorts this year and resulting in current paper losses of approximately $3.2 billion.
S3's Head of Predictive Analytics, Ihor Dusaniwsky, stated in the report: "Short sellers had been building their positions before the recent rebound." However, he added that short selling activities in such stocks have slowed down since the rebound.
According to statistics from HTSC, the average short-selling ratio of the Hang Seng Index fell to 10.98% last week, further dropping to 7.46% in 30 days, reaching the 4th percentile since 2010. As of the 30th, the short-selling ratio of internet-related stocks in Hong Kong has risen to 4.6%, while the short-selling ratio of real estate stocks in Hong Kong has fallen to 9.4%.
The sharp rise in the stock prices of Alibaba and JD.com has caused significant losses to investors who were short selling. In the past 5 days, Alibaba's stock price has surged nearly 20%.
Furthermore, shorts betting against companies like Nio Inc, XPeng, Li Auto, and PDD Holdings are still in a loss-making situation.
Data shows that despite recent gains in Chinese stocks listed in the U.S., shorts are not rushing to close their positions. However, S3 predicts that "a large number of shorts covering in this sector" will further boost stock prices if the market continues to rise.
Dusaniwsky said: "If short sellers start covering their positions on a large scale, Alibaba's stock price may be most affected because short selling of the stock has increased during this rally." He also stated:
"Due to short selling no longer offsetting some of the buying pressure from long positions, if the stock price fluctuates, buying cover and long buying simultaneously, it may make the stock price trend steeper."
Editor/Lambor