FIS hot stocks: 21 December 04 January 2016London Reporter: Drew Nicol
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The newly rebranded FIS Astec Analytics has released its 鈥榟ot stocks鈥� list of the most demanded stocks for the week starting 21 December.
The top-spot for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) was clinched by German online fashion retailer Zalando after its shares dropped 13 percent following weak Q3 results and a revision of its full-year predictions.
That said, Astec鈥檚 data hinted at some growing bearish attitudes on the part of short sellers for the past month, in which time the number of Zalando shares being borrowed has doubled.
Transocean, the EMEA hot stocks regular, took second place in the region after its shares were downgraded from 鈥榥eutral鈥� to 鈥榬educe鈥� by Seaport Global Securities.
The analysts said that despite the company鈥檚 successful cost restructuring efforts this year, they still expect pressures in the future from incurring costs on non-revenue generating assets.
However, Astec鈥檚 data actually suggests that short sellers reduced their positions as borrowing volumes fell about 10 percent in the week.
For the Americas, the beleaguered Canadian drug firm Valeant Pharmaceuticals International took top place again. The news of a US federal investigation continued to cause waves in the market and short sellers have been building positions for the past four weeks, with borrowing up 60 percent over the period.
Chesapeake Energy continues to garner interest after it was downgraded by Standard &Poor鈥檚, though official exchange figures of increasing short selling activity in September have also brought renewed focus.
Astec data showed the number of Chesapeake shares being borrowed has in fact fallen by more than 10 million shares since the start of October.
In the Asia Pacific region, China Mobile, the world鈥檚 largest wireless company by subscribers, took the top spot.
The company came under the spotlight after news broke that it will be joining with the China鈥檚 two other top three telecoms operators to pool about $36 billion worth of assets to improve efficiency.
The company鈥檚 share price saw some decent gains on the Hong Kong exchange after the news and Astec鈥檚 data suggested that the story brought about a surge in short covering, as borrowing volumes fell about 43 percent.
In second place was GungHo Online Entertainment, which moved up one place on the back of continued interest in its collaboration with Nintendo.
Short sellers are betting on the positive share price growth being short lived as Astec鈥檚 data showed the number of borrowed shares has risen by 23 percent just before the Christmas break.
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