Check Up: A rough fortnight for healthcare as most lose ground

Here’s our fortnightly wrap of all the news driving ASX healthcare stocks.

It’s been a rough two weeks for small-cap life sciences investors, with 70 of the 132 companies in our list posting declines and just 42 gaining ground. Another 20 were flat.
 

The biggest gainer by far has been nano-cap holding company BPH Energy (ASX:BPH), whose shares are up 318.4 per cent in the period from January 20 through to yesterday afternoon.

BPH is working on commercialising a device “that measures a patient’s brain electrical activity (EEG) to indicate the response to drugs administered during surgery”. But handily, it’s also into oil and gas exploration.

In response to an ASX price query January 25, BPH pointed mostly to progress by Advent Energy, which BPH has a 26 per cent stake in, in obtaining an offshore petroleum licence as a reason for the price spike.

Oneview Healthcare (ASX:ONE) has gained 77.8 per cent to 8c after signing a distribution agreement with Samsung to deliver bedside digital services for patients in the United States.

Anteotech (ASX:ADO) has risen 39.1 per cent over the fortnight – and was up 85 per cent yesterday – after its customer Ellume gained a $US232 million ($302 million) US contract for COVID-19 tests. White House officials announced the contract on Monday.

On the flip side, CardieX (ASX:CDX) was the biggest loser over the fortnight, with its shares declining 28.2 per cent following an unexplained price spike.  CDX shares are still up 41 per cent since the start of the year, however.

So far this year, Nanollose (ASX:NC6) is the biggest gainer, with a 168.5 per cent rise after the ecofibre company and a partner filed a patent for a plant-based rayon fabric.

BPH is also the biggest gainer since the start of 2020 – its shares are up more than twentyfold since that time, from 0.1c to 21c.

Race Oncology (ASX:RAC) is in second, with its shares climbing just over elevenfold in the 13-month span.