shares drop

Hearing device company Cochlear (COH) saw its shares plummet yesterday after it declared a global recall of its Nucleus CI500 line due to a spike in product failure rates. Shares dropped over 20 percent to $57.50 as terrified investors sold out en masse.

The CI500 series accounts for about 70 percent of Cochlear sales and pulling it off the market cost the company more than $800 million in stock value.

As Woodside Petroleum's (ASX:WPL) shares crashed below $40 for the first time in 10 months, BHP Billiton (ASX:BHP) may be swooping in for a takeover with a possible $35 billion bid in the offing.

After chief executive Alan Robertson sold 500,000 shares in the company, Pharmaxis (ASX:PXS) stock dropped 74 percent to 86 cents per share today. The fall in shares came after a European panel vetoed the release of the company's cystic fibrosis drug Bronchitol.

Whitehaven Coal (ASX:WHC) has slashed its profit guidance after Japan deliveries were reduced. The March and June quarters saw deferred coal shipments to Japan from Newcastle because of damage from the earthquake and tsunami.

The company said, "The principal reason ... is the deferral of metallurgical coal shipments from Newcastle to Japan during the March and June quarters." Shares dropped 20 cents or 3 percent to $6.52, the lowest since March 24.