Shares of Blink Charging Co. BLNK shot up 6.9% toward a two-month high in premarket trading Wednesday, after the maker of electric vehicle charging equipment said it hired Shareholder Intelligence Services (ShareIntel) to investigate potential illegal naked short selling in its stock. ShareIntel is the same company that other company’s have hired, including Genius Group Ltd. GNS and Hellbiz Inc. HLBZ, and that led to sharp increases in their share prices. “In its review of unusual trading patterns, the Company believes that certain individuals and/or companies may have engaged in manipulative and/or suspected illegal trading practices that may have artificially depressed its share price,” Blink Charging said in a statement. Short interest, or bearish bets on the stock, as a percent of the shares available for public trading (the float) was 31.1% according to the latest exchange data, which compares with 0.3% for Genius Group and 2.76% for Hellbiz. Blink Charging said it suspects the actual percentage may be greater than 31.1%. The stock has shed 5.9% over the past three months and dropped 34.9% over the past 12 months, while the S&P 500 SPX has lost 10.4% the past year.
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