Data Explorers, specialists in the tracking of short interest, on Thursday published a report on how investors sought to profit from the fallout of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano.
Here are their ‘observations in market sentiment over six days of closed airspace’, emphasis FT Alphaville’s:
Short selling in Airlines picked up especially in Lufthansa, BA, and Easyjet,
Logistics companies were predicted to suffer the most. SAS and Kuehne & Nagel saw increases in short selling with institutions selling 6% of their holdings in SAS in the last 5 days
Pharmaceuticals including Astrazeneca saw increased shorting and selling by institutions
Our basket of volcano affected companies saw an overall increase of 12% in their short interest
Hire car companies including Hertz and Sixt. Investors closed shorts and institutions bought more shares
Shorts ran from Sky fearing increased ad’ revenues from people glued to the coverage...MORE
From the Volcanism blog:
(In addition to grounding European aviation for days on end and exhausting headline-writers’ supplies of volcano puns.)The UK General Election … betting on 2010 temperatures … Southern California music festival … UK schoolgirls’ geography field trip … the Norwegian Government (iPad to the rescue) … touring wrestlers … Boston Marathon runners … the London Book Fair … health of pets … football, ice hockey and running … Premier League referees … the gilded progresses of celebs and pop stars … John Cleese’s trip home … football, cycling and running … Polish state funeral … transport of wounded soldiers … Dubai luxury hotel opening … Morocco golf tournaments … exams, exotic foods and surgery … yet more celebs (Hollywood ‘paralized’, no less) … Japan MotoGP … the international oil market … and even more celebs … European stocks and shares … Kenyan flower growers … Kenyan vegetable growers … movie premieres … BMW production in South Carolina … and still more celebs (superstar forced to take Irish Sea ferry) … youth boxing … equestrianism … football (also boxing, running, tennis, motorcyle racing) … organ transplants … Ghana farming, war crimes trials, rose growing, car making, flowers for New York weddings … travel plans of dogs, horses, snakes, geckos, turtles … classical concerts in San Diego … classical concerts in Salt Lake City … classical concerts in New York … Tribeca Film Festival … Metallica tour (kings of heavy metal fight back, take bus) … supplies of sea urchins, monkfish livers and scallops to British restaurants … art shipments … weddings … weddings … computer gaming events … airline emissions regulation … Indian TV host’s IPL contract (seems rather unfair) … Italian guitar players … supply chain resilience, whatever that is … college admissions … scareware cyberscams
