Carphone Warehouse

Carphone Warehouse (CPW) is making daily front page news, and here is the short side data: Currently 15.62% of CPW's shares are on loan, up from 14% in December and down from 16.25% in mid-March (please click to enlarge graph). Utilisation has decreased from 86% in mid-February to 74% today, as the share price rebounds from 230p in late April to 280p today. Interestingly, there are 32 Days to Cover for those investors who want to buy back shares and take profits. Carphone is no longer at the top of the retail short interest tree. HMV (HMV), Sainsbury (SBRY) and DSG (DSGI) all have between 36% and 25% of their Market Caps on Loan respectively. The average Utilisation for the rest of the EMEA Retailing sector is 29%. The only other stock that is in the top five most borrowed retail stocks in Europe is the German Small Cap stock Hawesko (HAW), who sell wines and champagnes. With 27% of their Market Cap out on Loan, perhaps the credit crunch is dissuading city folk away from luxurious drinking.

Best Buy (BBY), who are paying Charles Dunstone's company £1.1bn for a 50% stake in the European Consumer Electronics Venture, has also seen short interest decrease since March, when the %MCOL was 11%. It is now 8.5%, with Utilisation at 33%. The average Utilisation for the rest of the S&P500 is 7%, and for the rest of the North America Retailing Sector it is 23%.