The S&P/ASX 200 Index (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) has finished Thursday's session down 0.73% having continued its sell-off throughout the day to close near its intra-day low.
The weak session came despite an upbeat performance from Wall Street overnight which saw the Dow Jones rise 0.27% and hit a new record, all-time high and the S&P 500 gain 0.3%.
With the iron ore price headed towards a two-year low and a weak reading on Chinese manufacturing, the mining sector came in for some punishment today. Indeed all sectors were lower including the financials despite Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ASX: ANZ) reporting a very strong half-yearly result.
Here are the top five best performing stocks in the index today:
- Transfield Services Limited (ASX: TSE) jumped 4.7% to $1.00
- Paladin Energy Ltd (ASX: PDN) added 3.4% to 45 cents
- Trade Me Group Ltd (ASX: TME) climbed 3% to $3.77
- Tabcorp Holdings Limited (ASX: TAH) rose 2.2 to $3.80
- ALS Ltd (ASX: ALQ) gained 1.7% to $7.63
These stocks were the losers on the day:
