Stock exchange: investors more confident in LI bank

During the first half of August there was a decrease in the number of bets that the New York Community Bancorp's shares would decline -- and the decrease was big enough to put the Bancorp on the top-five list of such shares, according to New York Stock Exchange data compiled by the Reuters news agency.

The activity measured is selling short -- basically a method for investors to profit when share prices decline.

Overall, the NYSE saw an increase of 7.9 percent in short-selling during the relevant period, the first two weeks of August, compared to the preceding two-week period.

However New York Community Bancorp bucked that pessimistic trend, with a drop of 32.91 percent in short sales, Reuters said.

New York Community operates New York Community Bank, New York Commercial Bank, Queens County Savings Bank, Roslyn Savings Bank, Richmond County Savings Bank, Roosevelt Savings Bank and others.

Here are the stocks with the largest increases in short sales: 

• General Electric:  58.90
• Wells Fargo & Co: 38.85
• Advanced Semi: 110.75
• Hartford Financial: 31,539.66
• Pfizer Inc.: 21.13

Here are those with the biggest net decreases in short sales:

• Regions Financial  -37.84
• MGM Resorts  -17.86
• Nokia Corp.  -9.89
• New York Community Bancorp  -32.91
• Brookfield Asset  -81.87

And here are the stocks with the largest overall number of short positions: 

• Ford Motor Co.
• Bank of America
• General Electric
• AMD Inc.
• Nokia Corp.