This page tracks how heavily British American Tobacco. (JSE:BTI) is being shorted: ORTEX's daily short interest estimate, the cost to borrow the shares, utilization of the lendable supply and days to cover, next to the official exchange-reported figure.

Short interest

The number of shares that have been sold short and not yet bought back, usually shown as a percentage of free float (the shares available to trade). ORTEX estimates it every day from securities-lending data, instead of waiting for exchange reports that are published only twice a month and about two weeks late.

Cost to borrow

The annualised fee a short seller pays to borrow the shares, as a percentage of the position's value. A rising cost to borrow means lendable shares are getting scarce and holding the short is getting more expensive.

Utilization

The share of the lendable supply of a stock that is currently on loan. Close to 100% means almost no shares are left to borrow.

Days to cover

Short interest divided by average daily trading volume: roughly how many days of normal trading it would take for every short seller to buy back their shares.

Exchange-reported short interest

The official figure published by the exchange or regulator (in the US, FINRA twice a month). It is accurate but delayed, which is the gap the ORTEX daily and intraday estimates fill.

Source: ORTEX. Some figures are limited on the free view; live data and full history are part of ORTEX Advanced.

BTI key data

British American Tobacco. (JSE: BTI) has a market capitalization of $130.4B. Last close ZAR 998.71; 52-week range ZAR 868.88 to ZAR 1,111.12. ORTEX data as of 2026-10-27: short interest was 0.33% of free float, 14.9 days to cover and the average cost to borrow was 0.6%. Sign up for live short interest data.

British American Tobacco. (BTI) Short Interest

JSE • BTI • GB0002875804

Ex-dividend 24 Dec · 0.6126 GBP (special)

About this data: BTI short interest, cost to borrow and days to cover