Two days after availability briefly climbed to 12.8%, BHP's lending market has locked back down. Availability has collapsed to 0.53% — essentially every share in the pool is out on loan. The brief window has closed faster than it opened.
The June 23 reopening looked meaningful at the time. Availability hit 12.8%. Bears added to positions. The borrow market appeared to have normalised.
It hasn't. By June 24, availability was back to 0.28%. By June 25, it read 0.53% — still effectively shut. The lending pool is as tight as it has been at any point since mid-May.
Short interest reflects the pressure. Shares on loan rose to 17.74 million as of June 25. That's an 11% increase in one week. Bears kept building even as the pool dried up again.
This matters for anyone already short. Exiting a position requires buying back shares. In a market this tight, that process gets crowded.
Options flow is still pointing in a different direction. The put-call ratio was 0.58 on June 25, against a 20-day average of 0.67. Call-heavy positioning has persisted across four consecutive sessions near the 52-week low of 0.51.
That divergence — bears adding to short positions, options traders leaning bullish via calls — is wider now than it was two days ago. Short interest is up. The borrow window has shut. The PCR remains near record lows.
The cost to borrow eased this week to 2.58%. That's down from a spike to 5.59% on June 16. It is, however, up 33% versus a month ago. Borrowing BHP shares is cheaper than it was mid-month, but materially more expensive than it was in May.
The previous article noted a thaw. That thaw is over. The three data points that matter have all moved:
The short score sits at 55.9, up from 54.8 two weeks ago — a modest but consistent grind higher.
Earnings are next scheduled for August 17. Until then, the borrow market is the dominant mechanical story.
See the live data behind this article on ORTEX.
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