KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 29): The glove bears today still shorted 2.52 million Top Glove Corp Bhd shares worth RM16.69 million despite the GameStop-inspired call for retail investors to buy the stock to drive up their share prices and squeeze out short sellers.  

Top Glove, however, was not the stock that was shorted the most.

According to data by Bursa Malaysia on regulated short selling (RSS) today, Public Bank Bhd saw the high number of shares shorted today. The RSS volume stood at 6.19 million worth RM26.29 million.

Over at Supermax Corp Bhd, which announced a record high quarterly net profit of RM1.06 billion, there were 930,000 shares shorted today valued at RM6.24 million.

All eyes were on RSS activities today after a new forum on Reddit called BursaBets, drawing inspiration from WallStreetBets, was created yesterday to discuss buying up stocks of glove makers after the counters tumbled even as the firms' profits grew — alleged to be influenced by short sellers.

In the US, WallStreetBets was touted as having fuelled the rally in shares of video game retailer GameStop Corp — surging by about 1,700% in just two weeks — as amateur retail investors piled in and forced hedge funds to lose billions on their short positions. GameStop was also previously shorted heavily by some hedge funds.

In Malaysia, glove counters were indeed in high demand today. Seven of the glove stocks listed on Bursa Malaysia "gapped up" after the opening bell, starting the trading day at prices higher than Wednesday's closing.

Top Glove, which has been the main target of short sellers in Malaysia, rose 53 sen or 8.53% to close at RM6.74 — paring its gains after reaching its intraday peak of RM7.12 today.

Its peer Hartalega Holdings Bhd also closed up 66 sen or 5.41% at RM12.86 per share. It also came off from its intraday peak of RM13.42.

Another glove counter, Supermax went up 24 sen or 3.66% to close at RM6.80 per share with a market capitalisation of RM18.5 billion.

Short selling is regulated in Malaysia, where only selected securities are eligible for RSS activities. The suspension of RSS was lifted on Jan 1, after it was imposed by Bursa Malaysia and the Securities Commission for nine months last year following heightened market volatility arising from the broader impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. The regulator has imposed a 4% limit on net short position of each approved securities that are allowed for short selling. 

However, the regulators extended the ban on intraday short-selling (IDSS) and intraday short-selling by proprietary day traders (PDT Short Sale) until Feb 28.