Three sectors account for fully half of all hedge funds' short positions in Europe, according to regulatory filings. Consumer Discretionary, Industrials and Communication Services comprise 49% of short interest.
Transportation systems maker Alstom is the most-shorted Industrial name, with 1.74% of its float shorted. In the Comms space, Vodaphone Group and Cellnex Telecom had -3.74% and -3.14% of their shares shorted at the end of August. While Vodaphone had the most uncovered short interest of any company in Europe, Cellnex saw a -107.98 bp one-month slide.
Things aren't quite so bad for any individual Consumer Discretionary position, although tire maker Michelin has the dubious distinction of leading these cyclicals with -0.81% short interest.