Aus: All short selling banned - for now
Australia banned naked short selling in the wake of the attack on HBOS, some say fearing a similar attack on McQuarie. Now it's banned covered short selling, too - but only temporarily.
It's surprising, one might think, that small countries seem to have a better handle on this problem than larger ones.
Short selling has been illegal in Hong Kong for years (with occasional modifications to the policy), and in Malaysia naked short selling has been banned for at least the past eight years, although covered short selling is still allowed.
But the second attack on HBOS in just over a year, this one resulting in its rapid and ignominious disposal to a much smaller rival, has raised the prospect that - as currency speculators did in the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997 - short traders can, and will, drive the largest companies out of business.
Australia's short selling ban (which is not total, but is nearly so) in in theory indefinite, but it will be reviewed in 30 days from yesterday (Sunday) when ASIC formulated the ban on covered short selling ahead of the markets opening this morning.
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