Sigma Pharmaceutical

Drugmaker, Sigma Pharmaceuticals (ASX:SIP) have seen their shares fall after the company announced that it expected a $270 million impairment charge on the sale of its pharmaceutical division might affect its current loan facilities. This announcement follows a decision last month to sell the business for less than its book value. The writedown is unlikely to stop the sale of the business to South Africa's Aspen Pharmacare for $900m.

Fortescue was the overall best performing stock taking in a 15.72 percent increase. It was a mixture of metal & mineral, securities services, pharmaceuticals and mining that were among the best performing stocks for the Australian sharemarket for week 46 of 2007: Fortescue Metals (FMG), Computershare (CPU), Sigma Pharmaceutical (SIP), Iluka Resources (ILU). These best performing stocks managed gains over 9.93 percent by the end of the trading week.

AGL Energy (AGK) was the overall worst performing stock taking in a 4.4 percent decrease. Among the worst performing stocks for the week 41 of 2007 of the Australian sharemarket were a mixture of energy, pharmaceuticals and newspaper: AGL Energy (AGK), Sigma Pharmaceutical (SIP), WA Newspapers (WAN). These worst performing stocks recorded losses higher than 4.22 percent by the end of the trading week. Both the ASX 100 index and the ASX 200 index had the same companies in the top three positions for the worst performing stocks.

SP Ausnet (SPN) was the overall worst performing stock taking in a 10.71 percent decrease. It was a mixture of financial services, healthcare, energy and forest products companies who were among the worst performing stocks for the week 38 of 2007 on the Australian sharemarket: Bendigo Bank (BEN), Ansell (ANN), Sigma Pharmaceutical (SIP), SP Ausnet (SPN), Adelaide Bank (ADB), Gunns (GNS). These worst performing stocks for the week 38 recorded losses above 6.08 percent by the end of the trading week.