ASX Trading Wrap: Retail stocks climb, BNPL names sink, and AGL dives
Rene Anthony
The ASX 200 see-sawed through the week to end on 7,308.60 points, flat for the week.
Consumer discretionary names were among the week biggest winners, while shares in the buy-now pay-later segment lagged the broader market. US shares, meanwhile, set new records ahead of a key jobs report tonight.
Which shares excelled?
Cettire (ASX: CTT) was up there as one of the week biggest movers, surging on news the luxury retailer is looking to expand its product offering. The company is looking to expand the category of its goods into children wear, with a new website available to distribute its range of 6,000 products across 50-plus markets.It wasn't the only retailer to have a strong week, however, with other prominent consumer discretionary names also on fire. This included Nick Scali (ASX: NCK), Harvey Norman (ASX: HVN) and Lovisa Holdings (ASX: LOV). In an after-market announcement yesterday, IDP Education (ASX: IEL) unveiled news it has entered into a binding agreement to purchase the business operations of the British Council Indian International English Language Testing System (IELTS). IDP will fund the acquisition from existing cash and debt, with the language testing and student firm set to become the only distributor of IELTS in India. IEL shares leapt around 20% on the news.
Elsewhere, Life360 (ASX: 360) touched a new all-time high on the back of its latest market update. The family social networking app announced the formation of a Family Advisory Council that will see celebrities and influencers help shape its product , but more importantly, management guided revenue forecasts to come in at the top-end of prior guidance, around US$110-120 million in 2021. Also adding to the momentum was positive broker coverage out of Morgan Stanley, which slapped a price target of $8.60 on the stock.
Despite its shares paring some gains on Friday, Piedmont Lithium (ASX: PLL) rose strongly throughout the week. On Wednesday, the company learned that its joint bid with Sayona Mining (ASX: SYA) to acquire North American Lithium had been approved by the Superior Court of Quebec. Piedmont also announced that it would take-up a stake in UK-listed IronRidge Resources to gain exposure to its lithium projects in Ghana.There were also notable gains for a series of other resources stocks, including iron ore miner Mineral Resources (ASX: MIN), with iron ore prices climbing to end the week, Perseus Mining (ASX: PRU), which lifted its stake in the Napie Gold Project to 90%, plus coal names New Hope Corporation (ASX: NHC) and Coronado Global (ASX: CRN).
Which shares dragged on the market?
Leading the losses this week among the mid-to-large cap stocks was Genworth Mortgage Insurance (ASX: GMA). The mortgage insurance business, with a wide assortment of lending customers, received word from Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) that it intends to issue a request for proposal with respect to its Lenders Mortgage Insurance (LMI) requirements. That comes amid the upcoming expiry of Genworth exclusivity agreement with CBA at the end of 2022. The move may have sparked some concern among Genworth shareholders as the LMI contract with CBA accounted for more than half of gross written premiums in FY20.
Shares in Collins Foods (ASX: CKF) were on the back foot this week, despite the release of results that highlighted its growth in operations. The food operator detailed a 12.4% increase in total revenue to $1.07 billion, with its KFC Australia division seeing same-store sales growth of 12.9%. Despite underlying NPAT rising 18.2% to $56.9 million, investors sold-down the stock, with investment broker Morgans citing valuation concerns and softer sales growth in Australia as reasons it downgraded the stock.
In other news, AGL Energy (ASX: AGL) was dumped on concerns about its growth prospects in light of demerger plans for its coal and renewable energy assets. As part of the plans, the company also shed light on its decision to scrap dividends until 2022 and underwrite future dividends. It wasn't the only high-profile name to disappoint investors this week, with a second earnings downgrade from Lend Lease (ASX: LLC) also adding to its shareholders woes. It blamed the impact of the pandemic and lockdowns that halted work across its projects, including London.Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (ASX: URW) had a poor showing this week, with local shares in the shopping centre giant following the lead of the European listing. That comes as concerns about new COVID variants weigh on the minds of investors.Last but not least, there were setbacks for a number of popular stocks this week that have been favourites across the Selfwealth community, including betting duo Pointsbet Holdings (ASX: PBH) and Betmakers (ASX: BET), biotech hopefuls Mesoblast (ASX: MSB) and Telix Pharmaceuticals (ASX: TLX), gold explorer De Grey Mining (ASX: DEG), plus the buy-now pay-later trio in Afterpay (ASX: APT), Zip (ASX: Z1P) and Sezzle (ASX: SZL).
We'll be back next week with another Weekly ASX Trading Wrap Up - until then, have a great week!
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