Canadian oil town apartment owner's stock most shorted as bears circle

Toronto

CANADA'S largest residential landlord is one of the two most-shorted companies in North America as investors bet it will bear the brunt of a slow economic recovery in the oil-dependent region.

Short interest in Boardwalk Real Estate Investment Trust is at 37 per cent of its free float, or outstanding shares not held by insiders, tying with AltaGas Ltd as the most shorted stock on Canada's S&P/TSX Composite Index, Markit data compiled by Bloomberg showed on Tuesday. That's higher than Marriott International Inc, the most-shorted company on the S&P 500 with 35 per cent of its stock shorted. (Short sellers profit from price declines by selling borrowed securities and replacing them with shares bought at cheaper levels, pocketing the difference.)