Short sales boom as SET restores old regulation

Short sales value rose to Bt2.1 billion, from the average of Bt600 million per day in September.

Previously, the SET used the uptick rule that allowed investors to engage in short-selling only when the share price was higher than the latest trading price, to mitigate market volatility. It announced recently that it would use the old zero-plus-tick rule, which enables investors to engage in short-selling when the share price is higher or equal to the latest trading price from October 1 onwards.

Nuttachart Mekmasin, assistant managing director at Trinity Securities, expected the value of short sales to rise over Bt1 billion due to liquidity in making transactions and high stock valuation.

"Short sales would cause the SET to fall below 1,200 points because the index would move in line with reality after the previous uptick rule was changed," he said.

The top five shares with the highest short sales on Thursday were Kasikornbank (KBANK) Bt158.12 million, Minor International (MINT) Bt132.73 million, PTT Exploration and Production (PTTEP) Bt124.31 million, Airports of Thailand (AOT) Bt108.24 million, and Charoen Pokphand Foods (CPF) Bt104.45 million.