The S&P/ASX 200 Index (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) has finished a quiet day of trading on Friday with a gain of 0.17%, but for the week the index still lost 1.32%.
Today's higher close follows a subdued session overnight on Wall Street where the Dow Jones closed 0.13% lower and the S&P 500 finished down 0.01% as US investors awaited Friday's jobs report.
The local bourse lacked any major announcements to drive direction today, with Macquarie Group Ltd's (ASX: MQG) $1.27 billion full-year profit result the major company news to be released.
Sectors were mixed. Gold stocks weighed on the materials sector pushing it down 0.42%. The energy and property sectors also fell. All other sectors gained with health care and industrials putting in the best performances with gains of 0.77% and 0.73% respectively.
Here are the top five best performing stocks in the index today:
- Treasury Wine Estates Ltd (ASX: TWE) rallied 6.5% to $4.09
- Transfield Services Limited (ASX: TSE) jumped 5% to $1.05
- Primary Health Care Limited (ASX: PRY) added 3.7% to $4.71
- REA Group Limited (ASX: REA) climbed 3.4% to $47.64
- Mermaid Marine Australia Limited (ASX: MRM) gained 3.3% to $2.20
These stocks were the losers on the day: