The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has lifted the ban on short selling financial stocks today. Short selling was banned from September 21 last year on fiancial stocks but was removed for non-financial stocks in November.
There has been a negative knee-jerk effect on the banking stocks. All Australian bank stocks are down over 1.5%. Macquarie bank(MQG) shares are down 5%. MQG shares were battered by Hedge Funds just before short selling was banned in September. It will be interesting to see how the shares will fair now that the short selling ban has been lifted.
