A trader on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (illustrative image).

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TORSTEN SILZ / AFP

Several European companies subject to downward stock market bets saw their prices rise sharply on Wednesday, an indirect consequence of extremely brutal movements around the GameStop share in the United States.

The title of the GameStop video game stores, a distribution network yet in difficulty, is the subject of a pitched battle between professional and private investors which has seized Wall Street with a speculative surge.

The policeman of the New York Stock Exchange, the SEC, even took note of this "volatility" and said "assess" the situation.

“Visible” movements in France

In France, the movement was mainly visible on the two real estate companies Klepierre and Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, which respectively posted gains of 21.90% to 21.60 euros and 19.87% to 71.90 euros at the closing, for no apparent reason, and in a market down 1.16%.

"The most visible are these", confirms to AFP Alexandre Baradez, head of market analysis at IG France, recalling that these two French companies appear in the ranking of the ten most "shorted" European companies within the EuroStoxx 600 stock market index.

In Europe "it is much less spectacular, but these are movements that we observe", says Alexandre Baradez, in a kind of mimicry effect.

A similar movement was observed in the price of German biotech company Evotec, which has risen 22.5% over the last three sessions, as market rumors suggested the end of down betting on this stock. from Melvin Capital.

Across the Rhine, the price of Varta has also increased by 21% since the start of the week.

A well-established strategy

The practice of "short selling" is for an investor to borrow a stock, sell it at a generally high price and then wait for it to fall, to buy it back much cheaper before returning it.

He then pockets the difference between the price at which he sold the security and the price at which he buys it.

But if the price goes up sharply, the investor can get trapped.

This is what has unfolded on the GameStop action in recent days on Wall Street.

Professional investors betting on the downside, mainly funds led by financiers, are engaged in a standoff with individual investors betting massively on the rise, and coordinating via social networks.

Funds in difficulty

As a result, the company's stock price has soared 1.700% since January 1, sending professional speculators such as American financier Andrew Left of Citron Research and investment fund Melvin Capital, now in serious financial difficulty, to the carpet. , according to the

Wall Street Journal

.

The action, which was worth $ 2.80 at the end of April, concluded at $ 347.51 Wednesday on Wall Street, up 135%.

Other titles, such as that of the movie theater chain AMC Entertainment, suffering from disaffection with the pandemic, were also targeted by short sellers and swelled under speculation.

The action ended up 300% Wednesday at 19.90 dollars.

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