The buybacks are not allowed to influence the share price up or down. With relatively small numbers of shares being traded each day there will be some days where buybacks are not possible. If you are correct about the level of short trades, some of the same shares may have been traded multiple times a day so the daily trading levels may be deceiving.
I believe the only way we are going to see higher take up of Buybacks is to increase the dividends which may lead to an increase in the share price which would encourage more longer term holders to trade some shares. PS I've held since the beginning (2002) and purchased more in the crash around 10 years ago and have not sold any. As I've said before I am now looking to sell but not at this prices.
BSL Price at posting:
$20.32 Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
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