The ASX has continued to add to yesterday's gains with the S&P/ASX 200 Index (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) up 0.37% at midday today.
The local gains follow a positive session on Wall Street overnight where both the Dow Jones and the S&P 500 ended over 1% higher after the release of the minutes from the March meeting of the Federal Reserve indicated to investors that tightening of monetary policy would not occur as quickly as they had been expecting.
In local economic news the Australian Bureau of Statistics released unemployment figures which showed a seasonally adjusted decrease of 0.2% to 5.8% in March.
At lunchtime all sectors are higher with the exception of the energy, materials and telecom sectors which are all slightly lower.
Here are the top five best performing stocks in the index at midday today:
- Fairfax Media Limited (ASX: FXJ) has rallied 6.5% to $1.01
- Wotif.com Holdings Limited (ASX: WTF) has jumped 5.1% to $2.69
- Karoon Gas Australia Limited (ASX: KAR) has added 4.9% to $2.79
- Regis Resources Limited (ASX: RRL) has climbed 4.4% to $2.60
- TPG Telecom Ltd (ASX: TPM) has gained 4.3% to $6.22
These are the five worst performing stocks at midday today: