WA blue chips halved, the rest decimated

The stock market carnage over the past year has seen the value of Western Australia's blue chip stocks cut by half from their peak value while other stocks have been smashed to as little as 10 per cent of their top price.

The only winners in the current market turmoil are shareholders lucky enough to be in companies that are the subject of cash takeover offers.

WA's biggest company by market value, Woodside Petroleum, finished today's trading at $37.20 per share, down 47 per cent from its 12-month high. As recently as September 30, it was trading at $51.00 per share.

The state's biggest industrial comany and the country's biggest retailer, Wesfarmers, closed today at $21.75, down 51 per cent from its 12-month high.

Engineering and contracting companies Monadelphus and Macmahon, which have thrived during the resources boom and have strong order books, have been relatively good performers.

Monadelphous closed at $9.56, down 45 per cent, whole Macmahon closed at $1.32, down 34 per cent.

In contrast, mining stocks have been decimated over the past year.

Iron ore miner Fortescue Metals Group closed at $2.68, compared with a year high of $13.15. FMG's major shareholder Andrew Forrest was briefly Australia's richest person with a paper fortune worth more than $13 billion but that is now down to about $2.7 billion.

Uranium miner Paladin Energy closed at $2.05 today, down from $9.36.

Iron and coal stock Aquila Resources closed at $3.57, down from $17.95.

Among WA's larger stocks, nickel miner Minara Resources has been one of the heaviest losers, closing today at 76 cents compared with a 12-month high of $7.26.

One of the few stocks holding up in the current market is iron ore miner Portman, the subject of a takeover offer from major shareholder Cleveland-Cliffs.

The plunge in stock values started in November last year, after the S&P/ASX200 index peaked at 6828.7 points.

It closed today at 3,960 points, a fall of 42 per cent.