Market report: ASX down as local results disappoint

Disappointing financial reports pushed the Australian stock market down for the second day in a row today, although it ended the month on a four-week winning streak.

Concerns about US growth figures pushed Wall Street lower over night, which bumped key Asian markets outside of Japan into negative territory today.

Locally the benchmark S&P/ASX200 Index ended down 30.6 points, or 0.7 per cent, at 44993.5, while the broader All Ordinaries Index dropped 28.8 points, or 0.6 per cent, to 4507.4. Weakness was felt in the major sectors of mining and energy, finance and media.

The S&PASX Healthcare Index closed virtually unchanged today, adding a mere 28 points for the week to 8183 points. Looking at the majors, CSL was the most active stock today with just over 2 million shares changing hands leaving it to close just up at $33.14. ResMed added a modest 21 cents to close at $64.00 while Cochlear retreated $0.41 to $70.68.

Among the ex-majors there were neither stunning winners nor losers today. Healthcare provider Healthscope attracted a fair bit of interest with 1.37 million shares traded. The stock closed down $0.02 to $6.00. The company’s board recently recommended that shareholders accept a takeover offer from Texan consortium TPG and Carlyle. Also up, skin specialists Avita Medical gained 4.55 percent to close at $0.115.

Loser of the day was pain company QRxPharma which lost 5.53 percent to close at $0.94.