Cochlear excites dull market

The sharemarket limped into the weekend, as the bourse wound down after a busy profit reporting season.
EL & C Baillieu Stockbroking director Richard Morrow said the market was quieter yesterday and was dragged marginally lower by the big resources.
"People are glad this week is over and they are going to be reassessing their view on a lot of the results that have come out over the past couple of weeks," Mr Morrow said.
"There's a bit of selling pressure in some of the miners, Rio Tinto and BHP, but that generally happens in about March as it is seasonally a weak time."
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index was down 6.3 points at 4888.1 while the All Ordinaries slipped 6 points to 4849.4.
Rio Tinto closed $1.15 lower at $67.50 and BHP Billiton was down 33¢ at $23.37.
The big mover on the day was hearing implant maker Cochlear, which rose to a record high after telling the market a major rival had voluntarily recalled some of its implants. Cochlear's stock closed up $6.50, or 13.8 per cent, at $53.45 after peaking at $55.01. The stock was trading at about $31 a year ago.
Retailer Harvey Norman pushed 33¢, or 10.22 per cent, higher to $3.56 after reporting an 18.5 per cent rise in interim net profit.
In other retail stocks, Coles Myer was up 15¢ at $9.97 and David Jones added 7¢ to $3.02 but Woolworths fell 18¢ to $18.92.
The major banks were mixed, with National Australia Bank 10¢ higher at $37, Commonwealth Bank of Australia unchanged at $43.65, Westpac down 6¢ to $23.37 and ANZ 6¢ weaker at $25.95.
Woodside Petroleum gained 44¢ to $40.24, Oil Search gained 6¢ to $3.67 and Santos lifted by 19¢ to $11.05.
Media stocks were mixed with Fairfax down 1¢ to $3.91, Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd pulling back 7¢ to $17.46, News Corp shedding 19¢ to $23.69 and its non-voting shares off 25¢ to $22.33.
Wheat exporter AWB slipped 7¢ to $3.76 as the head of the Cole inquiry into the AWB Iraqi kickbacks scandal was granted an extension until the end of June to report his findings.
Macquarie Infrastructure Group rose 4¢ to $3.75 after it sold its 2.7 per cent stake in tollroad owner Transurban for $151 million. MIG is expected to use the cash to pay for acquisitions.
Telstra shares eased 2¢ to $3.81 while Singapore Telecommunications, parent of Optus, picked up 3¢ to $2.26.
The gold miners were mixed, with Newcrest Mining up 2¢ to $20.52 and Newmont Mining down 21¢ to $6.62.
Lion Nathan scotched a rumour that major shareholder Japan's Kirin Brewery was likely to raise its 46 per cent interest in the brewer. Lion shares lost 44¢ to $8.20.
At 5pm the Aussie was trading at US73.49¢, fractionally above Thursday's close of US73.45¢ but well down on last Friday's close of US74.45¢.