China Natural Resources, Inc. filed its full-year 2025 results this week against a backdrop of sharply easing short interest — yet a lending market that remains among the most expensive on Nasdaq.
Short interest halved over the past month. It peaked near 4.3% of the free float in early April, briefly spiked again to around 4.3% on April 9 during the broader tariff-driven volatility, then retreated hard. By May 14 it was down to 1.54% of the float — a 31% weekly drop. That deflation is real: short sellers have materially reduced exposure over the past six weeks. What they have not done is walk away from the stock entirely, and the day-over-day tick on May 14 showed a 12% single-session rebound in shares short, which hints at some re-entry at current levels.
The borrow market tells a very different story to the positioning data. At 264%, cost to borrow is still among the most punishing available for any US-listed name — the kind of rate that makes a directional short prohibitively expensive to hold for weeks. That said, it has eased meaningfully. CTB was north of 400% through most of April and was running around 340% at the start of May. The decline tracks the fall in short interest: as fewer shares are borrowed, the rate normalises, but 264% still implies a carry cost that would consume most of any downside move in a matter of weeks. Availability has loosened alongside the rate easing — lending pool availability is now well above where it was during the April peak pressure.
The catalyst behind this week's moves is clear: CHNR dropped its FY 2025 20-F on May 15. The headline EPS number improved markedly — FY EPS came in at $(0.14), up from $(0.32) the prior year — a loss-narrowing result that appears to have triggered some short covering. The stock closed May 15 at $4.16, off 5.2% on the day despite the improved numbers, extending a 3.3% weekly decline. A follow-on earnings event is flagged for May 22, which presumably relates to an additional filing or call. Looking at the four most recent post-result sessions, the stock moved in both directions: it gained 10% the day after the June 2025 print and 7.5% after the September print, but fell 5.7% after the December 2025 event. The pattern is not consistent, and first-day reactions have ranged from +10% to -6%.
Ownership is heavily concentrated. Laitan Investment Limited controls 52.8% of shares, reported as of April 1. The next largest disclosed holders are individuals associated with the company's management, each below 2%. Institutional presence is negligible — Edward Jones, UBS AM, and Fidelity combined hold fewer than 800 shares. That concentration means trading volume is thin and any short interest move, even in nominal share terms, creates outsized percentage swings.
The ORTEX short score eased to 55.6 on May 14, down from a recent peak of 67.4 on May 4. The DTC factor ranks in the 85th percentile despite a current DTC of under 0.1 — reflecting how small the free float is relative to the shares borrowed rather than any real days-to-cover pressure. With the 20-F now filed and the May 22 event approaching, the next inflection point is whether the additional disclosure prompts fresh short positioning or accelerates the covering trend already visible in the data.
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