[THE INVESTOR] Foreign securities companies led by Morgan Stanley & Co. International are the biggest short sellers betting against Korean stocks, according to the local bourse operator Korea Exchange on July 6.

As the KRX started to impose a new regulation obligating investors to reveal their short positions and information about their identities publicly from June 30, a total of 414 cases were reported, according to filings made under the new regulatory regime.

According to the KRX, Morgan Stanley reported the largest number of cases -- 248 of its short interest positions, betting on a decline in stocks listed on the Seoul bourse.

The top eight companies which reveled short selling holders were all foreign brokerage firms including Merrill Lynch International and Goldman Sachs International, it said.

Especially, the UK-based financial service firms accounted for 85.5 percent of the total number of the disclosure reports.

Under the new rule, investors who have greater than 0.5 percent of a target company’s outstanding shares have to disclose their short positions.

Stocks that Morgan Stanley has major short positions were those of Hotel Shilla, OCI, Hyundai Merchant Marine, Celltrion and Medipost.

By Park Han-na (hnpark@heraldcorp.com)