Zip reported its half-year net loss had ballooned to $453.8 million. In other news, shares in buy now, pay later company Zip Co dropped (-7.7pc) to $10.95. The company said the last year's state border closures and snap lockdowns "inhibited the Group's ability to effectively plan and move resources to support program delivery". Its half-year profit slumped (-40.5pc) to $16.2 million, in what it described as "subdued" results arising out of COVID-19. The catalyst for Service Stream's plunge was its disappointing results, released after the ASX had closed yesterday. On the flipside, some of the heaviest losses were felt by gold miners Regis Resources (-7.8pc), Ramelius Resources (-6.8pc) and Northern Star (-3.9pc), along with essential network services company Service Stream (-21.4pc), JB Hi-Fi (-3.8pc) and Super Retail Group (-3.5pc). Some of the best performers healthcare stocks Ramsay Health Care (+7.7pc) and Nanosonics (+9.5pc), miner Sandfire Resources (+11.1pc) and Platinum Asset Management (+6.7pc). The broader All Ordinaries was up by a similar level to 7,106 points. The benchmark ASX 200 index closed 56 points (+0.8pc) higher at 6,834. The Australian share market has recovered from yesterday's heavy losses, after Wall Street's industrial index, the Dow Jones, scaled its latest record high and a sell-off in tech-related stocks eased. ASX rebounds, Aussie dollar slips from three-year high This involves buying the shares back at a slightly higher price (before they jump even further), to avoid a situation where you lose even more cash. In case you made the wrong bet, there are ways to minimise your losses - by "short covering". Then you can return the shares to the original lender, and pocket the windfall.Ĭonversely, if the company's shares rise unexpectedly, you would have to buy them back at a higher price, return them to the lender and suffer a loss. You would have made a profit in this situation. If your hunch is correct, and the share price falls, you can purchase them back from the market at a lower price. It means you're borrowing the shares at their current price and selling them to others (even though you don't own them).
On the other hand, if you believe a company's shares will tank, you can place a bet on its declining fortunes ("shorting" the stock, in other words). Short-selling explainedīasically, when you buy shares in a company, you're usually betting that it will become more profitable over time. "It's mostly long buying with short covering sprinkled in to help grease the skids up," Mr Dusaniwsky said.įewer than 18 million GameStop shares were shorted as of Tuesday, down from over 70 million in early January, according to S3. Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at analytics firm S3 Partners, believes short covering was "not the predominant reason for this price move." "Because we like the stock," another replied, borrowing a line from Mr Gill (who also goes by the user name "DeepF***ingValue").Īnother user posted, "I missed out on GME the first time, I'm not making that mistake again. "Why is GME going up?" another retail trader asked on WallStreetBets. GameStop devotees on Reddit's popular WallStreetBets forum were surprised by the sudden jump in GameStop shares today. The retailer's share price hit a record high of $US483 at the end of last month, before crashing to $US53.50 in early February (a week later). Melvin said it lost 53 per cent before closing its position in GameStop. Some of America's big hedge funds lost billions of dollars as they wrongly bet on GameStop's share price tanking in January. The retail investors sought to punish hedge funds such as Melvin Capital that had taken outsized bets against the company. GameStop was the subject of an epic "short squeeze" last month, as amateur traders on Reddit forums helped send its share to the moon - up by as much as 2,400 per cent in less than four weeks. The retail trading frenzy was the subject of hearings in Washington last week, where Keith Gill, a Reddit user and YouTube streamer known as Roaring Kitty who had boosted the stock with his videos, reiterated that he was a fan of the stock. Shares of Canadian cannabis company Tilray gained nearly 13 per cent. Cinema chain AMC Entertainment gained 18 per cent, while BlackBerry rose nearly 9 per cent.