Harvey Norman chairman Gerry Harvey has splashed out nearly $72m buying up his own shares in his battle with short sellers.

During the past month, Harvey Norman shares have fallen 10.98 per cent, and after Gerry’s intervention they did rally 1.7 per cent.

Short sellers are wagering that the Harvey Norman stock they are short selling will drop in price. If the stock does drop after the short sale, the short seller buys it back at a lower price and returns it to the lender.

The difference between the sell price and the buy price is the short seller’s profit.

The past 30 days have not been good for the mass retailer. After revealing an interim drop in profit and lower dividends on February 28, he is now facing an oversupply of stock, which he has been trying to shift with 60-month finance deals.

The only problem is that his finance provider, Latitude Financial, has been forced to stop adding new customers from clients such as Harvey Norman, and related stores, as he tries to contain the damage from hackers that have stripped out information on his key finance customers, including passport, drivers licence and Medicare details.

His on-market transactions between March 2 to March 21 involve millions of shares, boosting his indirect holdings at a time of high market volatility.

The transactions follow Mr Harvey slamming investor response to its weak results as “a total over-reaction”.

The retailer revealed a 15.1 per cent decline in reported net profit after tax (NPAT) to $365.9 million. It also slashed its interim dividend by 35 per cent to 13 cents per share fully franked.

three weeks ago, when the shares slumped 10 per cent, he told shareholders they should “sell your house, sell your boat, sell your car [and] put the lot into Harvey Norman”.

The only problem is that the shares tanked.

Then there is the problem of Gerry Harvey’s dire hate of short sellers, and the $72M could be a move to at least steady the shares as they head down.

According to the Financial Review, in the week to March 6, Harvey Norman was the ASX200 stock with the highest amount of new short interest, fully 8.9 per cent of its free float (or 4.1 per cent of the total) in the hands of short sellers, which is an increase of 17.9 per cent on the week before the result.

It was only a week ago that the Financial Review revealed that 3 million Harvey Norman shares have been short-sold, with this believed to have increased during the past week.

In the week to March 6, Harvey Norman was the ASX200 stock with the highest amount of new short interest, fully 8.9 per cent of its free float (or 4.1 per cent of the total) in the hands of short sellers, which is an increase of 17.9 per cent on the week before the result.

If there is anything that sets Gerry Harvey off, its short sellers making a gain from his shares.