Folks we can't blame short sellers too much here. Although the...

Folks we can't blame short sellers too much here. Although the number of shares held for short selling has increased 7-fold since november (from about 0.2% to 1.3%), very little of those shares are currently in action. Less than 10% of daily trades are short sales.

After some short-selling activity a week or so ago, the current sp suppression is probably due to reluctant buyers and eager sellers. In other words, good old fashioned investment market. Not difficult to explain:
(a) caj suspended the divvy -- the ASX shuns stocks without a divvy
(b) caj has put itself on a debt diet (either because the bank says so or because it plans acquisitions, claims the board) -- anything about debt sends investors running for exits
(c) some uncertainty and hostile environment as the fed govt continues to act like a drive-by shooter. Sorry for the crude analogy, but Health Minister Ley's behaviour takes the word "political" to new lows. Consider Monday's choice quotation:
"[The Gratton report] is further proof this is nothing but a tacky scare campaign by stock exchange-listed pathology companies aimed at protecting their profits by unfairly playing on the fears of some of our most anxious and vulnerable patients." (from AAP, 22 feb) CAJ is imaging, not pathology, but you get the idea. She has a deep vocabulary reflecting this level of leadership.

Incidentally, Ley is the minister who argued for reducing bulk billing incentives for imaging because they didn't increase bulk billing as Labor had expected. In fact, bulk billing for imaging was already about 85% and Labor specific said (2009) the incentives were mainly to MAINTAIN and hopefully increase bulk billing levels. There wasn't much upward room to move, and Labor knew that! Also, the incentives were apparently introduced to partially ease the fee reductions at that time (Ley doesn't mention that).