FYI to Shorters, ha, ha,ha......Australia's corporate watchdog...

FYI to Shorters, ha, ha,ha......

Australia's corporate watchdog has moved in line with global regulators to toughen its stance on the practice of short selling shares.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has also banned the short-selling of shares in a bid to help crisis-ridden stock markets.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) says from Monday, there will be a temporary ban on so-called "naked" short-selling.

The practice involves selling borrowed shares to profit when shares lose value without an official agreement.

Global share market volatility has prompted the UK to crackdown on the practice and ASIC followed because of fears that could leave Australian shares more exposed to short sellers.

The Federal Minister for Corporate Law, Nick Sherry, says naked short-selling manipulates the market.

"We believe that it has contributed to market volatility," he said.

"It's inappropriate in the current markets for this sort of behaviour to occur so we welcome the action by the ASX and ASIC."

Mr Sherry says he believes short-selling contributes to the global turmoil.

"I've had meetings, discussions, the Treasurer has been included with ASIC about these practices and we've decided, well we welcome and we've supported these changes," he said.

"They're interim actions until we see the passage through parliament of covered short-selling legislation."

The announcement of a UK ban late on Thursday drove bank stocks there up by as much as 40 per cent.

Ireland also announced a ban on short sales.

-ABC/Reuters


Source
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/09/19/2369608.htm