The S&P/ASX 200 Index (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) has finished the day down just 0.12% after spending the day see-sawing between positive and negative territory.
Today marked the official close for companies with a half or full-year end reporting date of 31 December. Widely followed companies reporting today included retailers Woolworths Limited (ASX: WOW) and Harvey Norman Holdings Limited (ASX: HVN).
Overnight in the US, Wall Street was up after the market responded positively to comments by Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen. The Dow Jones gained 0.46%, while the S&P 500 added 0.49%.
On the local bourse sectors were mixed, with the IT sector the worst performer and consumer discretionary the best.
Here are the top five best performing stocks in the index today.
- Western Areas Ltd (ASX: WSA) climbed 6.8% to $3.28
- Medusa Mining Limited (ASX: MML) added 6.4% to $2.17
- James Hardie Industries plc (ASX: JHX) rose 6.1% to $14.50
- Macquarie Atlas Roads Group Limited (ASX: MQA) gained 4.7% to $3.15
- Kathmandu Holdings Ltd (ASX: KMD) closed up 4.1% to $3.03
These stocks were the losers on the day.
- Silver Lake Resources Limited (ASX: SLR) sunk 14.7% to 58 cents
- Mermaid Marine Australia Limited (ASX: MRM) dropped 13.5% to $2.43
- Treasury Wine Estates Ltd (ASX: TWE) fell 5.1% to $3.87
- Resolute Mining Limited (ASX: RSG) slipped 4.7% to 60.5 cents
- Adelaide Brighton Ltd. (ASX: ABC) declined 4.3% to $4.18
