After Aramco’s Record IPO, Traders Now Ask How to Short Shares - Bloomberg:
Shares of Saudi Aramco have shot up 10% since its record-setting $25.6 billion initial public offering earlier this month. That’s got bearish traders wondering whether they can short shares of the Gulf oil giant.
The answer: Not easily.
Normally, you wouldn’t even need to ask the question. Short sales -- when an investor borrows shares, sells them and then tries to buy them back at a lower price and profit from the difference -- are an established feature of exchanges across the world and practically a requirement for inclusion in MSCI indexes.
But when the company is Saudi Arabia’s crown jewel and when shares are listed on the kingdom’s Tadawul exchange, the answer is anything but obvious.
The Tadawul exchange does, on paper, permit short-selling, introducing it in 2017. But in practice the market for borrowing and lending shares in Saudi Arabia is illiquid, according to Marie Salem, head of institutions at Daman Securities in Dubai.
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