(Reuters) -Short interest in shares of plant-based meat seller Beyond Meat ( BYND ) surged more than 100% of its publicly available shares, Ortex data showed on Thursday.

About 109% of Beyond Meat's ( BYND ) free float shares were shorted, up from 81.8%, as of Wednesday.

Beyond Meat ( BYND ) stock jumped more than 112% in the last session, but closed slightly lower in volatile trading as retail traders piled into the heavily-shorted stock.

It was last down about 15% to $3.05 in early trading on Thursday.

Short selling is a strategy where investors borrow shares and sell them, aiming to buy them back later at a lower price to profit from a decline.

Short interest in a stock can exceed 100% of its free float due to the re-lending of borrowed shares, allowing multiple investors to short the same underlying stock.

This phenomenon, seen in cases like GameStop ( GME ) in 2021, reflects how market mechanics and derivatives can amplify short exposure beyond the number of shares available for public trading. GameStop ( GME ) had around 140% short interest at its peak in January 2021, meaning more shares were shorted than the company had outstanding.

(Reporting by Shashwat Chauhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)