When more than 65,000 short selling positions were reckoned by the corporate regulator, Fairfax Media Ltd. appeared as the stock facing the most bearish response from the investors.

More than 570 different short sellers had wedged the short position reports under a new compulsory reporting system that began on June 1 said the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

ASIC has begun daily reporting of cumulative short positions, which give a photographic clue of the bearish sentiment towards a stock at any point in time.

It also specifies the quantity of extension in the stock that will need to be enclosed by short sellers acquiring shares at some point in the future.

Short sellers also anticipate profiting from a cry off in the price of securities by selling securities they have borrowed from a third party, such as a broker, and then buying them back at a later date to return to the lender.

The first report by ASIC roofed the short positions on 483 products across listed equities, together with ordinary shares and securities, on June 16.

Short sellers held less than 1% of the Company's total listed securities on issue, for most of the listed equities.

With 271.5 million shares, or 11.53% of its 2.35 billion ordinary shares on issue, the sentiment was much more negative for the media group Fairfax Media.

Wealth manager Perpetual Ltd. had the next biggest amount of short sellers, who held a cumulative stake of 5.01 on June 16.