Short Interest, WSJ>
June 24, 1999
Money & Investing
Short Interest Activity Rises
On Nasdaq in Latest Month
By DANIELLE SESSA
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
NEW YORK -- Short interest rose 1.71% in the latest month on the
Nasdaq Stock Market.
The total, which includes Nasdaq small-capitalization and
large-capitalization stocks, increased to 1,903,850,289 shares on June 15
from 1,871,863,246 in mid-May, according to Nasdaq.
On the Nasdaq SmallCap Market, which is
made up of the 1,025 smaller-cap stocks,
short interest slipped 0.8%. It climbed 1.77%
for the 3,818 larger-cap stocks on the Nasdaq National Market.
Traders who sell securities "short" borrow shares and then sell them,
betting they can profit by buying the stock back later at lower prices.
Short interest is the number of shares that haven't been repurchased for
return to lenders. As such, it is often taken as an indicator of the degree of
negative sentiment among investors in the stocks. Investors may rely on
short selling for other purposes, including as a hedging strategy related to
corporate mergers and acquisitions, for convertible securities and options,
and for tax purposes.
The Nasdaq National Market's short-interest ratio rose to 2.18 days from
1.82 days in the previous month. The short-interest ratio for the smaller
stocks jumped to 0.92 day from 0.64. The ratio is the number of trading
days that would be required to close out the short positions through share
purchases and is considered a measure of trading sentiment.
The following companies had the largest decreases in short interest: Dell
Computer Corp. fell 24,671,724 shares to 30,629,093; Apple Computer
Inc. fell 12,462,157 shares to 6,566,724; At Home Corp. fell 7,776,454
shares to 7,454,045; Platinum Technology International Inc. fell 6,408,550
shares to 630,452; and Wang Labs Inc. fell 3,176,951 shares to 317,397.
Dutch firm Getronics NV completed a $2 billion acquisition of Wang
earlier this month.
The following companies had the largest increase in short interest: E*Trade
Group Inc. rose 7,840,527 shares to 17,235,169; MCI WorldCom Inc.
rose 5,569,788 shares to 28,986,049; Quantum Corp. rose 3,154,673
shares to 6,377,917; Microsoft Corp. rose 2,738,238 shares to
30,798,260; and L. L. Knickerbocker Co. rose 2,705,573 shares to
2,749,170.
Among companies with the largest short-interest positions: Intel Corp. was
down 1,659,753 shares to 39,897,571; Cisco Systems Inc. was up
1,417,407 shares to 22,123,663; Oracle Corp. was down 686,156
shares to 20,374,432; and Qualcomm Inc. was down 514,366 shares to
18,697,380.
The next Nasdaq short-interest report will be published on July 27. |
