Marshall Wace maintained its position as the manager with the greatest short exposure in April, accounting for 21.99% of registered short positions (up from 15.69% at the end of February), according to the latest monthly pan-European short position data from SEI Novus.
BlackRock Institutional Trust Company accounted for 9.06% and AKO Capital LLP for 8.07%.
Marshall Wace has over double the proportion of aggregated short positions of the manager with the second highest European short exposure. Marshall Wace is short a number of prominent retail names such as Adidas, H&M, Burberry, Hello Fresh and Dutch supermarket, Ahold Delhaize and Phillips.
For the second month running, the largest short position in the last week of April was registered by Marshall Wace in Koninklijke Philips NV, a Dutch healthcare technology company, accounting for 0.92% of total aggregated European short positions by size, followed by a second Marshall Wace position in Ferrovial, SA, a Spanish sustainable infrastructure operator, accounting for 0.57%, followed by a new entrant – Viking Global Investors’ position in German airline Lufthansa accounting for 0.56%.
Industrial stocks remained the most shorted in April, ending the month accounting for 22.23% of total short activity in Europe, followed by consumer discretionary stocks accounting for 21.38% of registered European short positions – close to the same levels registered at the end of March. Industrials and consumer discretionary have consistently been the most shorted sectors so far in 2022.
The top 5 most shorted European stocks by size, as a proportion of all registered European short positions are:
Adidas, 1.9% (down from 2.3% on 31 March)
Kingfisher 1.7% (up from 1.5% on 31 March)
Mowi ASA 1.6% (no change from 31 March)
Aker BP 1.5% (new entrant into top 5)
Electrolux 1.5% (new entrant into top 5)
The top three countries with the greatest short exposures were the UK with 25.46% (a significant decline from 28.78% registered on 28 February), followed by Germany with 17.88% (down from 19.21% on 31 March) and France with 12.37% (down slightly from 12.91% at the end of the previous month).
Home 24 SE (a German online retailer) had the greatest number of managers holding short positions in the firm with eight, and Morphosys AG, a German biopharmaceutical, with seven and followed by Nordex SE (German wind turbine manufacturer) with five.
