a2 Milk (ASX:A2M) tumbles on earnings guidance: Aus shares up 0.5% over week

Despite ending the last session of the week lower, it has been a positive week overall for the Aussie share market. Information technology stocks led the gains this week, with the sector gaining almost 6 per cent.

At the closing bell the S&P/ASX 200 index closed 1.2 per cent lower or 81 points down to finish at 6,676. Over the week, the market has gained 33 points or 0.5 per cent.

Futures market

Dow futures are suggesting a fall of 66 points.
S&P 500 futures are eyeing a dip of 12 points.
The Nasdaq futures are eyeing a fall of 36 points.
And the ASX200 futures are eyeing an 89 point fall on Monday morning.

Broker moves

Macquarie rates Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) as an Outperform, with a 12 month price target of $118.00. The broker was surprised by the company’s decision to internally promote CFO Jakob Stausholm to CEO, and notes that buoyant iron-ore prices continue to underpin strong earnings. Shares in Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) closed 0.9 per cent higher at $117.53.

Company news

Shares in A2Milk Company (ASX:A2M) dropped over 20 per cent this afternoon, after the company released a guidance update, showing that its sales performance recovery was occurring slower than expected, due to the impact of Covid 19 and foreign exchange headwinds. The company’s retail daigou channel, which sees personal shoppers export its goods, has been hit hard due to reduced tourism from China and international student numbers. While this has predominantly affected infant nutrition sales, sales in its other nutritionals segment have now also been impacted as well. The group expects revenue for the 2021 financial year of between $1.4 and $1.55 billion. It believes group EBITDA margin will be between 26 and 29 per cent. Shares in A2Milk Company (ASX:A2M) closed 23.6 per cent lower at $10.14.

Shares in biotech darling Mesoblast (ASX:MSB) tumbled this morning, after it announced its Covid 19 trial for ventilator-dependent patients is not likely to meet its 30 day mortality reduction endpoint.

AGL (ASX:AGL) says that Unit 3 of its Liddell Power Station is out of service and the outage could last up to 2 and a half months, following a transformer incident which saw an employee become “seriously injured”.

Ricegrower’s (ASX:SGL) CopRice has signed a purchase agreement to acquire a dairy nutrition business from Inghams which will see it enter the New Zealand market.

REA Group (ASX:REA) has increased its stake in Indian real estate platform, Elara Technologies, from 13.5 per cent to 54.3 per cent, giving it a controlling position

IPOs

Cettire (ASX:CTT) started trading today.The online luxury goods retailer floated with an issue price of $0.50, opened at $0.45 and closed at $0.50.

Mining exploration company, Desert Metals (ASX:DM1) started trading today. It issued shares at $0.20 and started trading on the ASX at $0.48 and closed at $0.52.

Wall Street

Wrapped up our four trading days this week higher: The Dow Jones added 0.9 per cent, The S&P 500 gained 1.6 per cent and the tech heavy Nasdaq is up just over 3 per cent.

Source: Finance News Network