Market report: Biotech stocks rise for yet another week

The S&P/ASX 200 Heathcare Index continued its march towards 9000 points this week as the broader market eked out a small gain for the second week in a row.

At the close of trade, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 4.6 points, or 0.1 per cent, at 4745.9, up 51.7 percent for the week. The local bourse fared better than most in the region, with many Asian markets down or flat in anticipation of rate rises in China. In contrast, Wall Street fared well over night and over the week as confidence continues to improve in the world’s biggest economy.

Healthcare stocks gained 147.6 points to 8885.20 points, the fifth weekly gain in a row.

Regenerative medicine specialists Mesoblast and xenotransplantation biotech Living Cell Technologies(LCT) were the companies to watch this week.

On Wednesday Mesoblast announced that US pharma giant Cephalon was buying 20 percent of the company as part of a licencing and joint development deal worth a potential $2 billion. Shares in the company closed the week up over 40 percent to $4.68, and would have closed even higher had it not been for a bit of profit taking today.

LCT announced today that Russia had become the first country in the world to approve the use and sale of its Type 1 diabetes treatment Diabecell. Its shares soared in early trade, closing up almost 26 percent to $0.17 on heavy volumes.

Biotech major CSL also made a strong contribution, adding $1.42, or four percent to close on $36.70. The other majors were down, however, ResMed losing eight cents to $33.36, with Cochlear shedding 55 cents to $78.35.

Looking at the major losers today, cancer and epilepsy specialists Bionomics shed 4.76 percent to close on $0.30.