The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has finally lifted its ban on short-selling effective from this morning.
The regulator announced a short while ago that the ban, which had been in place since 21 September, last year, would be lifted from 10 am.
ASIC said it had reviewed market conditions and considered that the balance between market efficiency and potential systemic concern had now moved in favour of the ban being lifted.
However it said that the global financial crisis and global recession continued to place pressure on Australia’s markets and, because of this, it would not hesitate to reimpose the ban immediately if the need arose.
