It's Autumn in Australia - a season that the Americans call Fall - and that's what the stock markets have done. All indices lost ground in the month of April.

Despite the January and February plunge, a slight easing in March and another fall in April the Biotech Daily Top-40 Index (BDI-40) is still well above the February and March 2020 Covid write-down but at its lowest point since November 2020 (see charts below).

The BDI-40 fell a further 6.1 percent in April to a collective market capitalization of $15,752 million, but a significant 20.2 percent below April 30 last year.

The ASX200 slipped 0.9 percent in April, but was up 5.8 percent for the year, while the Nasdaq Biotechnology Index (NBI) lost 9.7 percent in April and 22.7 percent for the year.

Resmed dragged the collective value of the three Big Caps (which are not included in the BDI-40) down 2.2 percent for the month but the group was up 5.6 percent for the year. Resmed lost 10.1 percent to $2,623 million, while Cochlear climbed 1.8 percent to $15,093 million and CSL edged up 0.3 percent to $129,502 million.

Thirty-five of the BDI-40 companies fell in April, with 18 down by more than 10 percent; while just five were up, with three up more than 10 percent. Some of the greatest April losses are inexplicable and some expected to fall have weathered the storm.

Universal Biosensors led the April falls, down 22.5 percent to $117 million, despite good news, followed by Avita (20.9%), Kazia (17.8%), Impedimed (17.4%), Dimerix (17.2%), Imugene (16.0%), Actinogen (15.5%), Amplia (14.3%), Compumedics (13.2%), Clinuvel (12.9%), Polynovo (12.4%), Proteomics (11.8%), Immutep and Starpharma (11.7%).

Oncosil climbed 43.75 percent to $46 million following months of falls, followed by Pharmaxis (12.8%), Genetic Signatures (11.0%), Paradigm (9.4%) and Telix (1.0%).

But the 12-month data is more informative, underlining the relevance of time-points. Imugene was up 35.4 percent for the year to May 1, because its rise to $3.1 billion began a year ago. In June, it could be the year’s deepest fall, while still being worth more than $1 billion with no product sales.

Polynovo lost 69.5 percent for the year to April 30, followed by Avita (64.9%), Starpharma (53.2%), Alcidion and Paradigm (47.3%), Atomo (46.7%), Clinuvel (46.3%) and Next Science (44.5%). These are all good companies, so why the sell off?

The more speculative stocks had deeper falls: Inoviq (Bard1) lost 78.6 percent in 12 months, followed by Oventus (73.1%), Anteo (71.9%), Exopharm (71.7%), Radiopharm (68.3%), Optiscan (67.5%), Bionomics (66.4%), Zelira (65.2%) and Creso (65.0%).

Biotech Daily has observed institutional gambling on biotech, showing that some fund managers are disinterested in the sector, chasing temporary gains. Biotech requires long-term investment and that means putting one’s money in and leaving it there for a decade. There is money to be made in biotech but day-trading isn’t the way to do it.

The 11 companies in Cannabis Corner fell a further 12 percent in April to $1,177 million, but 1.4 percent above April 30, 2021. Only Cann Group and Medlab improved in April.