Market report: Aussie biotechs defy wider market blues

The S&P/ASX 200 Heathcare Index managed to sneak into positive territory this week, adding to last week’s strong gains.

In contrast the broader market staged its worst showing in three months, largely due to the sell-off of resources stocks as investors reacted to concerns that China may be about to lift interest rates to curb inflation.

By late-afternoon trade, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index had shed 35.3 points, or 0.7 per cent, to 4693.2, with the broader All Ordinaries index also losing 0.7 percent, taking down to 4778.7.

Heading the other way, the ASX/200 S&P Healthcare Index managed to eke out a modest 50-point gain to finish the week at 8442.7 points.

This was largely due to a strong showing by a number of ex-majors, including diagnostics company HealthLinx which surged 19.23 percent to $0.093 after reporting positive results from a clinical study of its ovarian cancer diagnostic.

Other strong performers included Bionomics, up six percent to $0.35, while health services company Primary Healthcare gained 5.57 percent to $3.22. Regenerative medicine specialists Mesoblast added 4.29 percent to $2.92, while HIV specialists Avexa gained 19.57 percent to $0.055 after announcing its decision to take a 24 percent stake in successful medical devices company Allied Medical, itself a key investor in Coridon, the commercial vehicle for the cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil.

Among the biggest losers on Friday was dedrimer / nanotechnology company Starpharma, which lost 4.37 percent to $0.75, while cancer specialists Prima BioMed lost eight percent to close at $0.115.

Providing the biggest drag on the market however was Cochlear, which lost $2.21 to $71.47, with ResMed the other major in the red for the week, losing seven cents to finish on $33.33. CSL on the other hand managed to gain 54 cents to close at $34.74.