PSZAF spokesman Istvan Binder told that the market regulator had issued a decree in September requiring special disclosure of short selling transactions on the Budapest Stock Exchange. The decree was extended in January.
PSZAF noted when it introduced the disclosure requirements that the decree did not place restrictions on short selling – the practice of selling equities or other financial instruments that the seller does not own in the hope of repurchasing them later at a lower price – but followed a directive of the Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) to introduce stricter handling of short selling.
Hungarian market regulations require short sellers to borrow the instruments they are selling.
Because of the global financial crisis, market authorities in many countries around the world banned short selling of some financial sector shares in the autumn.