ASX rises after tech gains on Wall Street

The news: The Australian sharemarket ended a touch higher as the IT sector rallied, tracking tech gains on Wall Street.

The benchmark ASX 200 rose 0.15% to end at 8,474.9, with six out of 11 sectors finishing in green. IT was the best performer, increasing 1.13%.

Other news:

• Spartan Resources (10.56%), Ramelius Resources (8.53%) — Spartan raised $220 million through an institutional share placement that included its bigger rival Ramelius lifting its stake in the company to 20%.
• Magellan (4.64%) — Reported a lift in its funds under management despite outflows continuing in November.
• WiseTech (1.88%) — Extended gains as Morningstar said its fears around "key man risk" were lowered after the software group's investor day on Tuesday.
• Fonterra (1.24%) — Maintained its full-year earnings guidance, despite a drop in first-quarter profit, and lifted its forecast for full-year farmgate milk prices.
• Southern Cross Media (ended flat) — Has flagged inaccuracies in a media report suggesting that its long-term contract with Australian Traffic Network is proving off-putting to potential suitors.

Deals:

• Bigtincan (5.56%) — Terminated its merger agreement with Investcorp AI Acquisition Corp after it failed to match an improved takeover bid by rival suitor Vector Capital.
• DroneShield (-0.71) — Received a repeat standalone contract order of $8.2 million from a major European military customer for its dismounted and vehicle-mounted counterdrone systems.
• Woodside (-1.09%) — Renegotiated an engineering procurement and construction agreement with contractor Bechtel for its recently-acquired Louisiana LNG project in the US. Also, benchmark oil prices fell as investors await a decision by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies on production cuts.