It certainly has been an eventful day on the S&P/ASX 200 (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) with numerous high profile earnings releases. The good news is that so far the index has held firm and is up almost 0.1% to 5,798 points.
But four shares which have acted as major drags on the index today are as follows:
The a2 Milk Company Ltd (Australia) (ASX: A2M) share price has tumbled 4.5% to $2.17 today. Investors may be concerned by news that CEO Geoffrey Babidge has offloaded 900,000 shares. The reason for the sale was to balance out his portfolio, which I feel is a fair explanation. After all, he still has a relevant interest of 600,000 fully paid ordinary shares and 5,000,000 partly paid ordinary shares.
The Blackmores Limited (ASX: BKL) share price has fallen 9% to $105.97 after the health supplements company reported a 42% drop in half-year net profit after tax compared to the prior corresponding period. One bright spot was that Blackmores China contributed $64 million in sales, up 92%.
The Fletcher Building Limited (Australia) (ASX:FBU) share price has dropped 6.5% to $8.86 after the release of its half-year results. Although the building materials company posted an 18% increase in net profit before significant items, investors appear to be disappointed with the performance of its construction business following losses on a major project.
The iSentia Group Ltd (ASX: ISD) share price has plunged a whopping 34% to $1.84 after the media monitoring company released a dismal half-year report. Unfortunately the company's embattled King Content business delivered an even worse performance than indicated in the company's previous trading update. The acquisition of King Content looks to have been a disastrous one sadly.
