Australian biotech market watch 28/08/09

By Tim Dean
Friday, 28 August, 2009

Another week of gains on the All Ordinaries saw the index rise to 4,487, up over 4% for the week, with retailers leading the charge today.

The S&P/ASX 200 Health Care index also took a jump today, lifting over 1.5% to 8,474, after a dip earlier in the week.

At the head of the pack is Sonic Healthcare (ASX:SHL), up an impressive 8.5% to $13.88, after its profits beat even optimistic predictions.

Sirtex Medical (ASX:SRX) was not far behind, posting a healthy 72% increase in revenue for the financial year, aided not only by increased sales but also currency movements. Today it's up 7.7% to $4.64.

A healthy $20.8m profit for Blackmores (ASX:BKL) buoyed its share price by 3.7% to a shade under $20, it's best price for over a year.

Healthscope (ASX:HSP) also put in a strong showing, up 4% even to $4.68, after announcing a new capital raising.

Cellestis (ASX:CST), which posted a strong result earlier this week, nudged up 4.6% to $3.62.

CSL (ASX:CSL) has been in the news of late over the bumps in getting its swine flu vaccine out to the Australian public. It's price rose 22c to $32.50 in a day of light trading. ResMed (ASX:RMD) was steady, and the last of the Big Three, Cochlear (ASX:COH), saw an 81c drop to $57.88 on the back of a share issue earlier this week.