BUZZ-Tesco: short-sellers miss a trick

** While supermarkets are among the heaviest shorted stocksin the UK, sellers seem to have missed a trick in avoiding Tesco. Chart: http://link.reuters.com/web92w

** Shares fall 8.5 pct as firm suspends employees afteroverstating H1 profits by 250 million pounds.

** Short-selling in J Sainsbury, WM Morrison and Ocado materially increased between Februaryand June, but remained static for Tesco, according to datalogged with the FCA.

** For J Sainsbury significant short positions rose to 8.3pct from 3.5 pct over that period, for WM Morrison it rose to 5pct from 4.5 pct & for Ocado it rose to 5.2 pct from 3.9 pct.

** Shorting in Tesco flat over the period at 0.8 pct andstill the least-shorted on this metric at 1.3 pct.

** Two hedge funds - Lone Pine Capital & Lansdowne Partners- hold short positions in Tesco in excess of the FCA's 0.5%disclosure threshold.

** Tesco now worst-performer among supermarkets in the lastyear, down 44 pct.

** Trailing price-to-book value more than double that ofnearest listed rivals J Sainsbury and WM Morrison. Chart: http://link.reuters.com/dub92w (RM: alasdair.pal.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)