Wall Street traders bet on further slides in Nokia shares

Smart money moves against the Finns as Apple launches new iPhone

Nokia’s shares continued their downward spiral in New York last night [12th September 2012] as it was revealed investors were increasingly taking up short positions againist the Finnish handset maker. In the wake of Apple’s iPhone 5 launch, Nokia’s shares dropped 1.43 per cent to just $2.75 – not as low as it has been this year, but still a far cry from the manufacturer’s heyday in 2000 when its shares commanded $56. Nokia is pinning its hopes on Microsoft’s Windows Phone op to revive sales, but after Apple’s latest iPhone launch yesterday it was becoming clearer that the markets weren’t as convinced that Nokia has the right strategy.

According to New York global securities firm Astec Analytics, investors are now rushing to take short positions against the Finnish smartphone maker in anticipation that its shares will plunge even lower.

It calculated that all 175 million Nokia shares available for trading this way had now been taken, with the cost rising, demonstrating a growing demand by market bears to short the stock.

Prior to the Apple announcement Nokia’s shares had been up 2 per cent at $2.85.

Conversely, investors interest in short trading Blackberry maker RIM was yesterday on the wane, having been subject to frenetic scrutiny in recent months.

The cost of borrowing its shares, which traders regard as a key measure of the ‘hotness’ of a particular stock, has fallen as Nokia’s has correspondingly risen.

“Most of the short-side community seem to be turning their attention elsewhere in the industry,” commented Astec’s executive Tim Smith, in an oblique reference to Nokia’s continuing woes.

In early trading in Stockholm this morning [13th September 2012] Nokia’s share price reflected the New York slide, down 2.67 per cent.