Investors had largely closed their short positions in UK financial stocks by Friday afternoon, the day the Financial Services Authority clamped down on the short-selling of 19 financial companies, as a rally in their shares threatened to leave those betting on prices falling in the red.

An expected bounce in the prices of the 19 shares on Friday contributed to hedge funds and other speculators closing their short positions, leaving only five of the 19 companies on the UK regulators's shorting blacklist with more than 3% of their equities on loan by the end of the day, according to analysis by short selling data provider DataExplorers.com.