It seems GMG may be a victim of short selling ????Banks down...

It seems GMG may be a victim of short selling ????

Banks down after short selling ban lifted

By ABC Online business reporter Michael Janda

Posted 8 hours 26 minutes ago

The Australian share market has been dragged lower by a fall in the financial sector after a short selling ban was lifted.

The benchmark All Ordinaries index is down 0.5 per cent to 3,735 and the ASX 200 is 26 points lower to 3,736.

The Australian corporate regulator, ASIC, today lifted a ban on the short selling of financial stocks, several months after similar bans had been removed overseas.

The ban had prevented traders from effectively betting on the price of financial stocks to fall by borrowing shares, selling them off to push the company's price down, and buying them back more cheaply to return to the lender.

Financial stocks responded by falling more than 2 per cent.

The biggest falls were concentrated among those companies that have allegedly been the victims of short sellers, and those that look like potential targets: Macquarie Group was down 5.3 per cent to $31.71 at 12:43pm (AEST); Bank of Queensland was down 4.9 per cent; property investor Goodman Group was down 10.4 per cent.