Sydney - Australia's securities regulator Sunday joined the United States, Britain, Germany, France and Switzerland in curbing the short-selling of shares.
In a short sale, a trader sells borrowed stock, hoping to make a profit by buying it back at a cheaper price.
Many argue that short-selling is behind the turmoil in global share markets. They claim hedge funds are deliberately driving down the price of shares in order to make windfall profits when they buy them back.
Last week the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) ruled that from Monday a temporary ban on what's called naked short-selling would take effect. In naked short-selling, traders sell shares they don't actually own.