SIA short interest surges amid bearish industry outlook and stock’s ‘over-valuation’

THE short interest in Singapore Airlines (SIA) stock has been increasing since May, making it the second-most shorted counter after AEM Holdings in Singapore as at last Friday (Oct 13), S&P Global Market Intelligence data showed.

Short interest – defined as the percentage of outstanding shares on loan – in the mainboard-listed national carrier has stayed above 4 per cent since May 9. This is higher than the average of 2.06 per cent short interest logged by the stock over the past three years, since January 2020.

The highest levels of short interest between January 2020 and mid-October 2023 were recorded around April 2020 – ranging from 5.43 per cent to 6.22 per cent – when the pandemic started to bite. Then, the passenger capacity of the group, including budget airline Scoot, dived to only 3 per cent and load factor was under 0.5 per cent.