The new raft of disclosure rules that require hedge funds and other short sellers to reveal the “significant” short positions they take in the shares of companies carrying out rights issues come into force on Monday – but the requirements have yet to have much of an effect on the market.

On the last trading day before the Financial Services Authority’s rules are introduced, shares in the bank HBOS, which is looking to raise £4bn by going cap in hand to investors, fell a further 4.9 per cent to 282¼p, having briefly fallen below the 275p a share price of its pending rights issue. And shares in the mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley, which is also planning a rights issue, were down as well yesterday.