Australian biotech market watch 05/02/10

The Australian stock market has taken a dive in morning trading on the back of international concerns that the recovery will be slower than expected.

The All Ordinaries was down over 2.5% as of 11.30 this morning to 4523.1.

The health index has managed to keep its head above water, however, care of rises in two of the Big Three biotechs, CSL (ASX:CSL), up 19c to $31.31, and ResMed (ASX:RMD), up 6.3% to $6.37.

Other biotechnology stocks didn't fare as well. Living Cell Technology (ASX:LCT) continued its slide over the past couple of months by shedding 10% to 17.5c.

Mesoblast (ASX:MSB) also suffered a similar decline, down 19c to $1.65, which still puts it 9.2% up from one month ago, but shows that many of the gains made through January, when it topped $2.26 at one point, were transient.

Prima BioMed (ASX:PRR) also dropped by 1c to 13.5c, along with anti-leukaemia company, ChemGenex (ASX:CXS), which lost 7% of its value to 80c even.

Sirtex Medical (ASX:SRX) continued its shaky performance over the last couple of weeks, losing an additional 2.75% today, down to $6.04.

CathRx (ASX:CXD) did manage a gain, recovering some of its losses over the past two week of relatively heavy trading. Today it put on 2.5c to 39.5c.