ADH shorting spikes +1.22% as uranium shorts ease (slightly)

Movers Analysis

Biggest riser: ADH (+1.22% to 2.08%). This is unusual for a mid-cap retailer in a single week. The cleanest explanation is earnings positioning: discretionary retail is where shorts go when they want to express “households are tapped out” without taking a macro bet. ADH has flagged strong recent performance, which can actually invite shorts if the market thinks the bar is now too high. IDX (+1.00% to 3.53%) also looks like positioning rather than panic. Imaging businesses can be sensitive to cost inflation and referral volumes; when shorts lift exposure quickly, it’s often a bet that margins disappoint or that the market is overpaying for ‘defensive’ earnings. AGE (+0.82% to 1.34%) is the speculative end of the uranium trade. Shorts stepping in here while covering BOE suggests a preference to fade exploration optionality rather than near-term production. On the cover side, ADT (-2.56% to 3.00%) is a big unwind. With ADT progressing its Vares project toward production, this looks like shorts taking profit as key milestones de-risk the story. CKF (-2.52% to 2.00%) and DMP (-2.32% to 6.25%) are the other message. Shorts are backing away from consumer services names that had become popular ‘rates stay higher’ shorts. CKF’s latest annual report (https://www.collinsfoods.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Collins-Foods-Annual-Report-2025.pdf) gives the market plenty to model; the short-cover suggests the near-term downside case is getting crowded or already in the price. BOE’s -1.30% cover is the cleanest “crowded trade release valve” this week. When a top-2 shorted name sees that kind of reduction, it often means either (a) the catalyst has passed, or (b) the risk of a squeeze has risen.

Industry Trends

Zooming out, the ASX short book is still dominated by two themes. First: lithium pessimism remains entrenched. MIN, PLS and LTR are all top-5 most shorted, and none saw meaningful covering this week (all down less than a third of a percent). That’s consistent with a sector thesis rather than company-specific news: shorts are leaning on weaker lithium pricing expectations and the risk that project expansions don’t earn their cost of capital. Second: uranium is crowded but starting to rotate. PDN is still at the ceiling (15.88%, the market max), yet BOE saw meaningful covering (-1.30%). Add in AGE rising (+0.82%) and SLX ticking up (+0.29%), and it reads like a reshuffle within the theme — less “short everything uranium” and more “pick the weakest link by catalyst and valuation.” Outside resources, the consumer tape is mixed. ADH being hit while CKF and DMP are covered tells you shorts are getting more selective: they want the names where expectations look stretched, not the ones where the bad news is already well-owned.