Market report: Healthcare index slips for the week as wider market holds on

The S&P/ASX 200 Healthcare Index fell for the week while the broader market just clung onto positive territory.

At the close, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was 10.1 points lower at 4689, 7.7 points up for the week, while the broader All Ordinaries index fell 7.7 points to 4758.2, but was up 18 points for the week.

Concerns about expected monetary easing by the US Federal Reserve was partly to blame for the cautious mood today, which also saw a number of major Asian markets slip slightly.

Investors were clearly luke warm on the biotech and life sciences sectors. While the S&P/ASX 200 Healthcare Index managed a slight recovery today, it finished the week down 160 points to 8054.4.

Looking at the majors, only Cochlear was up for the week, adding 27 cents to close at $69.90. ResMed was down a dollar to $31.68, as was CSL which ended the week on $31.92.

Of the main winners and losers today, Living Cell Technologies was the standout performer, gaining 28.13 percent to close at $0.20. Atcor Medical Holdings also performed very well, gaining 26.32 percent to close at $0.12 following the announcement of a contract with an unnamed U.S pharmaceutical company.

Therapeutics developer Alchemia was among the biggest losers, its shares down 3.64 percent to $0.53. On Thursday the company announced that it was the subject of a routine inspection by the FDA related to the application for approval of its heparin generic drug fondaparinux.

Elsewhere in the market ovarian cancer specialists Prima BioMed continued to excite investors, its shares rising 7.41 percent on heavy volumes today to reclaim last week’s lost gains following the appointment of Lucy Turnbull as chairman. Its shares closed the week on $0.145, exactly where they finished last Friday.