Barratt is not as bad as expected...

Barratt Developments (BDEV), the UK housebuilder, offered some much needed relief to the battered housebuilding sector today, as it reported reservations down by only one third since the start of the year and eschewed a widely rumoured rights issue to strengthen its balance sheet. Net private reservations for the year were down 33.6 per cent against 2007 (FT.com).

It is clear to see from this graph (please click to enlarge) that short sellers correctly predicted Barratt's results were not set to be as bad as the market may have initially estimated, with the percentage of the company's Market Cap out on Loan (%MCOL) to short investors, decreasing from 18.7% on April 7th to 12.57% today.