Short selling falls to pre-crisis lows as market rally continues

The percentage of stocks borrowed by short sellers has fallen to the lowest level since before the financial crisis, as markets continue to rally.

Data compiled by Markit for the FT shows the percentage of stocks being shorted has fallen below levels last seen before the Lehman crisis in Europe, UK and the US. For example, short interest in the US S&P 500 index has slumped to around 2% of the total index, close to the low seen when Markit first began collecting such data in 2006. Short interest in the Europe's Stoxx 600 and UK's FTSE All Share are also down at just over 2% and under 1%, respectively. This fall comes at a time when markets across Europe and North America are trading at near record highs, but the numbers show i...