The local bourse managed to show some spirit late in the session yesterday with the S&P/ASX 200 Index (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) closing up 0.26% despite being flat at lunch time.
The gains follow a subdued session on Wall Street overnight which saw the Dow Jones fall 0.61%, while the S&P 500 dropped 0.47%, following two days of record market highs.
Investors appear to be waiting on the side-lines for some direction with the major news stories of the day being flat car sales data from the ABS, a rise in the iron ore price, and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) hitting a new all-time high.
Most sectors ended Thursday's trade in positive territory with only the consumer discretionary and materials sectors registering declines.
Here are yesterday's top five best performing stocks in the index:
- Leighton Holdings Limited (ASX: LEI) rallied 6.6% to $20.90
- Alumina Limited (ASX: AWC) jumped 6.6% to $1.37
- Village Roadshow Ltd (ASX: VRL) gained 6.4% to $7.81
- Mount Gibson Iron Limited (ASX: MGX) added 6% to 79 cents
- Spark Infrastructure Group (ASX: SKI) rose 3.6% to $1.85
These stocks were the losers on the day:
