falling share price

OM Holdings (OMH) shares slipped 6.17 per cent to 38 cents on early trade today after the manganese miner reported that it is expecting a $12 million loss for the 2011 calendar. The miner blames high Australian dollar and one-off costs for the loss in the previous year.

QBE Insurance Group (QBE) is starting the year on a rough phase as it announces the 40-50 per cent decline in profit and 62 per cent in dividend, causing its shareprice to drop to an eight-year low. This follows yesterday's bad news regarding the involvement of the insurance company's subsidiary Balboa in a pricing probe in the US.

Shares of Alumina (AWC) declined this morning more by more than 3 per cent after US aluminium producer Alcoa Inc. (AAI) announced that it would permanently shut down 12 per cent of its aluminum smelting capacity due to weakened prices of industrial metal. Alumina currently owns 40 per cent stake of the US aluminium producer.

This isn't the season that retailers were waiting for as the shares of major retailer Myer Holdings (MYR) fall further after Christmas. The share price of the retailer shed 1.8 per cent to $1.95 yesterday, falling to $1.93 at 1225 AEDT today.

Shares in Newcrest Mining (NCM) have declined by 99 per cent at $30.08 yesterday after the market reacted to the downgrade in the company's gold production in Monday. The share prices were shortly below $30 before the day ended to its closing price, which is currently the lowest the company has plumbed in more than 27 months.

Billabong International (BBG) shares have dived deeper today after it announced a 26 per cent decline in its half year earnings and closed its stock price at $2.03 yesterday.

JB Hi-Fi (JBH) reported last night that it expects its half year earnings to decline by 5 per cent as its shares dropped by $1.96 or 13.1 per cent to $13.04 in the morning trade. The electronics retailer surprised the market by experiencing a downgrade on what is supposed to be the busiest time of the year.

Cochlear (ASX:COH) shares crashed anew after rival Advanced Bionics (AB) made a comeback in the US market. Days after the biotech company recalled its Nucleus hearing implants, shares dropped over 15 percent to $51.01 before closing at $51.30, down 14.64 percent.

Goodman Fielder (ASX:GFF) shares plummeted more than 9 percent to $1.055 after the company made a surprise announcement yesterday to downgrade profit to 20 percent for the year. This is the company's lowest drop since April 2009. Wednesday saw shares drop by more than 3 percent on a 40 percent turnover spike.

Australian Engineering and infrastructure management service company,Downer EDI (ASX:DOW) have seen their shares fall a record 20 percent after an announcement to the Australian stockmarket that the production of the 78 new Waratah trains was running late.