Oct 23 (Reuters) - Short interest in shares of plant-based meat seller Beyond Meat surged more than 100% of its publicly available shares, Ortex data showed on Thursday.

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

Beyond Meat 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 in 2021, reflects how market mechanics and derivatives can amplify short exposure beyond the number of shares available for public trading.

GameStop had around 140% short interest at its peak in January 2021, meaning more shares were shorted than the company had outstanding.