The run of gains which has seen the local bourse move higher every day since last Thursday petered out today with the S&P/ASX 200 Index (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) finishing the session down 0.04%. Overnight the Dow Jones lost 0.19%, while the S&P 500 fell 0.03%.
While the session started with generally upbeat result releases from companies, later in the day investors turned their attention to weak labour-force data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), which showed the unemployment rate had increased to 6%.
Sectors were mixed with telecommunication services and gold gaining over 1%, while healthcare lost 1.3%.
Here are the top five best performing stocks in the index today.
- Qantas Airways Limited (ASX: QAN) rose 6.3% to $1.185
- McMillan Shakespeare Limited (ASX: MMS) added 4.7% to$11.57
- Western Areas Ltd (ASX: WSA) gained 4.7% to $3.14
- PanAust Limited (ASX: PNA) climbed 3.7% to $1.845
- Senex Energy Ltd (ASX: SXY) closed up 3.6% to 72.5 cents
These stocks were the losers on the day.
- Goodman Fielder Ltd (ASX: GFF) slipped 7.1% to 58.5 cents
- Primary Health Care Limited (ASX: PRY) dropped 5.4% to $4.55
- Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX: WHC) lost 3.9% to $1.605
- Skilled Group Ltd. (ASX: SKE) declined 3.9% to $2.97
- DuluxGroup Ltd (ASX: DLX) closed down 3.7% to $5.49
