Biotech behemoth CSL’s anaemic share price performance following its annual results was the story of the day on the ASX.
But while the company operates in a different stratosphere to most of its local blue chip peers, there were still key lessons in the numbers for investors as reporting season kicks into gear.
CSL is one of Australia’s great innovation success stories, an endlessly fascinating company and a hugely important stock for the ASX. The $140 billion giant is the third most valuable company on the exchange, operates a truly global business and develops some of the most medically significant blood plasma treatments, influenza vaccines and iron-based therapies on the planet.
But it’s also a company that is almost completely detached from the Australian economy. So it’s usually quite difficult to draw any sweeping conclusions from its results for the rest of the market. Put it this way — you aren’t going to learn much about the health of the Australian consumer or demand for minerals exports from scouring through its accounts.
