The S&P/ASX 200 Index (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) has given up most of its early gains over the course of this morning's trade; at midday the index is up just 0.1%.
On Wall Street overnight US stocks were higher with the Dow Jones up 0.24% and the S&P 500 gaining 0.29% as investors' cheered positive US jobs data.
In local news, the market has been influenced today by retail sales data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics which showed consumers continued to spend in February.
All sectors except utilities are higher.
Here are the top five best performing stocks in the index at midday today:
- Goodman Fielder Ltd (ASX: GFF) is up 5.7% to 50.2 cents
- Pacific Brands Limited (ASX: PBG) has rallied 3.4% to 52.2 cents
- Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX: NST) has risen 3.3% to $1.09
- Evolution FPO (ASX: EVN) has added 3.1% to 88.7 cents
- Platinum Asset Management Limited (ASX: PTM) has gained 2.8% to $7.64
These are the five worst performing stocks at midday today:
