NEW YORK, Feb. 27, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- At the end of the settlement date of February 15, 2008, short interest in 2,698 NASDAQ Global Market(sm) securities totaled 8,865,941,056 shares compared with 8,441,146,548 shares in 2,707 Global Market issues reported for the prior settlement date of January 31, 2008. The mid-February short interest represents 3.51 days average daily NASDAQ Global Market share volume for the reporting period, compared with 2.94 days for the prior reporting period.
Short interest in 522 securities on The NASDAQ Capital Market(sm) totaled 183,330,305 shares at the end of the settlement date of February 15, 2008, compared with 184,756,264 shares in 516 securities for the previous reporting period. This represents 5.00 days average daily volume, compared with the previous reporting period's figure of 4.02.
In summary, short interest in all 3,220 NASDAQ(r) securities totaled 9,049,271,361 shares at the end of the February 15, 2008 settlement date, compared with 3,223 issues and 8,625,902,812 shares at the end of the previous reporting period. This is 3.53 days average daily volume, compared with an average of 2.96 days for the previous reporting period.
The open short interest positions reported for each NASDAQ security reflect the total number of shares sold short by all broker/dealers regardless of their exchange affiliations. A short sale is generally understood to mean the sale of a security that the seller does not own or any sale that is consummated by the delivery of a security borrowed by or for the account of the seller.
For more information on NASDAQ short interest positions, including publication dates, visit http://www.nasdaqtrader.com/asp/short_interest.asp.
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