US REGULATORS have added 137 companies including General Electric (GE), Ford and General Motors to a list of stocks temporarily protected against short selling.

Short-selling is where investors bet on a stock or security falling in value rather than the conventional practice of buying equities whose price is expected to increase.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) amended its emergency ban on short-selling, giving the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Stock Market authority to add to the list of 799 companies issued last week.

The NYSE added 71 companies and Nasdaq added 66, according to notices sent to brokerages.

In addition to banks that had been omitted from the SEC's initial list, such as MT Bank, the NYSE added companies that generate a large portion of their revenue from providing loans.

GE got about half its profit last year from financial units.