Aussie healthcare stocks cut through broad sell-off on dollar strength

Sonic Healthcare

26/09/2022 04:52

** Australian healthcare sub-index  .AXHJ  up as much as
2.5% to 40,937.20, their biggest intraday pct jump since July 4
    ** AXHJ gains come amid a broad sell-off in the ASX 200
benchmark index  .AXJO , which is down 1.3% as of 0310 GMT  .AX 
    ** Aussie healthcare firms depend on exports to the U.S.;
volatility in the foreign exchange impacts profitability
    ** The U.S. dollar has been strengthening consistently in
recent times on the back of an aggressive U.S. Federal Reserve 
    ** The dollar index  =USD  is at 113.750 against a basket of
six major currencies - the highest level since mid-2002  USD/ 
    ** Australian biotech giant CSL Ltd  CSL.AX  gains as much
as 2.4%, while Sonic Healthcare  SHL.AX  adds 1.9%
    ** Ramsay Health Care  RHC.AX , among the few losers in the
index, down as much as 7.3% after $13 bln buyout deal with
KKR-led consortium collapses  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N30W0I4
    ** Sub-index down 11.6% this year, as of last close, in line
with a 11.7% decline in the ASX 200 benchmark 
 (Reporting by Sameer Manekar in Bengaluru)
 ((Sameer.Manekar@thomsonreuters.com; Twitter: https://twitter.com/sameer_manekar))