Last Orders: Tech leads the ASX 200 to finish just over the line

The ASX 200 finished higher, rising by 0.13 per cent, with seven of 11 sectors in the black.

Tech finished the strongest today, rising by almost 3.5 per cent, following the rise in US tech stocks over night.

BNPL plays were some of the biggest performers, with Afterpay (ASX:APT) and Zip (ASX:Z1P) rising by 6 per cent and 10 per cent respectively on no news.

Meanwhile, energy stocks were the main drag on the market after slumping by more than 2 per cent.

For the week, the ASX 200 finished stronger by around 1 per cent, with the Tech sector leading the way.

In big cap news, NAB (ASX:NAB) has reached an undisclosed agreement to settle a class action in the US dating back from 2016, relating to the Bank Bill Swap Rate (BBSW) fixing. The bank is also in court in Australia, facing a charge from ASIC over defective fee statements.

ANNOUNCEMENTS YOU MAY’VE MISSED

Thorn Group (ASX:TGA) has received an on-market takeover bid from Somers Limited for shares that it does not already own at 21c per share. Thorn’s share price jumped by 10 per cent to 22c on the news.

Betmarkers Tech (ASX:BET) rose by more than 10 per cent after completing the acquisition of US-based Sportech’s racing, tote and digital assets.

Starpharma (ASX:SPL) rose by 10 per cent after saying that its antiviral nasal spray, Viraleze, achieved more than 99.9% reduction of virus against the Alpha (UK), Beta (South Africa) and Gamma (Japan/Brazil) SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.

Paradigm Biopharma (ASX:PAR) surged by 7 per cent after receiving key approvals for its phase-2 clinical trial treating MPS-VI subjects with mucopolysaccharidosis type VI disease.

Pentanet (ASX:5GG) has received commitments from several institutional investors to raise $20m to fund the growth of its cloud gaming and telecommunications infrastructure rollout.

Asset manager AWN Holdings (ASX:AWN) rose by more than 20 per cent after announcing that one its companies, VivoPower, has completed a $120m deal that will see Canada-based Access Industrial Mining buy 1,675 EV conversion kits over five-years, marking VivoPower’s second major distribution agreement for Tembo e-LV products.