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Markets Live: ASX rises as A2, Bellamy's fall

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New Zealand dairy company A2 Milk said on Wednesday it expected full-year revenues to rise more than 63 per cent after a surge in the first nine months of the financial year.

Revenue for the 12 months to June 30 is expected to be between $NZ900 million and $NZ920 million ($827 million to $845 million) compared to $NZ549.5 million the previous year, the company said in a statement to the stock exchange.

This forecast appears to be well below investor expectations however with the share price tumbling in early trade.

Read the full story .

The Australian market has opened in the green this morning although market sweethearts Bellamy's and a2 Milk have tumbled.

The S&P/ASX 200 index is up 10.3 points, or 0.2 per cent, to 6,108.1.

a2 Milk investors have not reacted favourably to a trading update despite group revenue increasing by 70 per cent. The increase appears to have come in below expectation for investors. Shares are trading down 16.9 per cent.

It appears Bellamy's investors have reacted too as the company's shares have fallen 10.2 per cent.

BHP Billiton is leading the market with a 1.5 per cent gain.

Invocare is up 5 per cent, the index's best performer, while Whitehaven Coal is up 3 per cent.

Telstra is also weighing the index today, dropping a further 1.4 per cent to $2.83.

CYBG is down 5.7 per cent.

BREAKING: Scandal-torn wealth giant AMP's former chairman Catherine Brenner is retreating further from corporate life, announcing she will leave the board of Coca-Cola Amatil next year.

CCA's chairman Ilana Atlas said that after being a director at the company for 10 years, Ms Brenner would not seek re-election at next year's annual general meeting.

Ms Brenner quit as AMP chairman after revelations at the banking royal commission that the company stole from customers by charging them for services they did not receive, and then misled the corporate regulator about its misbehaviour.

Patrick Hatch has the full story here.

Here are the overnight market highlights:

SPI futures down 5 points at 6095

AUD trading at 74.71 US cents

On Wall St: Dow -1%, S&P 500 -0.9%, Nasdaq -1%

In Europe: Stoxx 50 unchanged, FTSE +0.2%, CAC +0.2%, DAX -0.1%

Spot gold -1.7% at $US1291.43 an ounce

Brent crude unchanged at $US78.26 a barrel

West Texas Intermediate crude +0.3% at $US71.14 a barrel

Iron ore -2.4% at $US67.28 a tonne

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After starting the week tentatively, Wall Street slid on Tuesday, setting up the ASX for a negative start to the day, writes Ilya Spivak & John Kicklighter.

The US indices started off this week with a clear sense of hesitation with extending the robust recovery forged last week. Through this past session, restraint turned into genuine loss.

The S&P 500, Dow and Nasdaq (speculative favorite, blue chip stalwart and leveraged tech index) all gapped lower on the open and went on to lose further ground as the session wore on.

The retreat highlights in US shares markets is not presenting as a wholesale risk aversion – as European and other regional equities weren't party to it – but there was certainly a wider concern than just those found in the local markets.

The US 10-year Treasury yield charged above 3 per cent to a near 7-year high while the Dollar rallied and emerging market currencies suffered an intense retreat.

Usually these factors align in monetary policy from the Fed – concern that 'free money' is being reined in and higher returns are to be found in foreign investment in the US – but it is too early and uneven to project a trend out of this theme.

Read the full 8@eight here.

Good morning and welcome to the Markets Live blog for Wednesday.

Your editor today is William McInnes.

This blog is not intended as investment advice.

Fairfax Media with wires.