Celltrion shares halved from Dec as shorting picks up on murky earnings outlook

Shorting on Celltrion shares nearly halved from their peak in December shows no sign of easing as the bio stock loses appeal on the prospects of its Covid-19 treatment versus vaccines and the arrival of antiviral oral pill.

Short sale transactions on Celltrion shares reached 12.1 billion won ($10.29 million) on Monday, the third largest after Hotel Shilla (54.8 billion won) and Doosan Heavy Industries (21.9 billion won) on the major bourse.

As of Oct. 27, Celltrion topped the list in its short account balance of 880.3 billion won, much higher than the sum of the second and fourth place stocks – HMM (605.4 billion won), and Kumho Petrochemical (237.6 billion won).

Short sales for Celltrion picked up since last week with 40 billion won worth of shares shorted last Friday, followed by a 12 billion won short sale on Monday.

Celltrion was the 19th most shorted stock in August, 18th in September, and seventh in October.

Celltrion shares fell to a 52-week low of 196,000 won in the intraday trading on Monday, losing half of its value from its December peak of 396,239 won. The price hovered at around 270,000 won between May and July before a short-lived rebound to about 300,000 won late August. But it slid by 11.43 percent in September and by a further 22.74 percent in October. Shares on Tuesday finished flat at 206,500 won.

Concerns about Celltrion¡¯s third-quarter earnings are putting continued downward pressure on its stock price. Investor sentiment was already cooled due to lower-than-expected performance of Rekirona, the company¡¯s antibody injection for Covid-19, as regulatory approval has yet to be given in North America and Europe, while its clinical usefulness is being faded by the emergence of much more convenient oral antivirals.

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