NEWS.com.au- Hedge funds trying to cement a position ahead of the Qantas takeover result caused massive turnover in the stock yesterday.
The domestic and international funds are estimated to hold about 40 per cent of the stock, with UBS and Credit Suisse among the major players.
The turnover – 64.8 million shares were traded yesterday – led brokers to suspect sustained hedge fund activity.
Qantas was the target of institutional shorting earlier in the deal, but the number of shares available for the trade has started to ease.
IG Market trading deputy head Oliver Stevens said investor appetite had started to dissipate in the past two sessions, because of the drawn-out ordeal. “We have had a problem with shorting it because there has been limited supply. People are just not putting their shares up to be borrowed,” Mr Stevens said.
“When it was trading at $5.15 with the 90 per cent acceptance, there was a lot more shorting.”
The market consensus is that Qantas shares will fall as low as $4.50 if the bid collapses.
