Despite briefly lifting at the open, the market is again lower at lunchtime today with the S&P/ASX 200 Index (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) down 0.25% at noon.
The drop follows a very light volume session for US stocks overnight; the Dow Jones finished up 0.12% and the S&P 500 gained 0.38%.
In local company news, a takeover approach for wine maker and marketer Treasury Wine Estates has sent the stock soaring.
Resource stocks have found some support this morning too, despite the iron ore price falling below the psychological $100 per tonne level. The materials, consumer discretionary, consumer staples, telco and utilities sectors are all higher.
Here are the top five best performing stocks in the index at midday today:
- Treasury Wine Estates Ltd (ASX: TWE) has soared 19% to $4.84
- Lynas Corporation Limited (ASX: LYC) has added 4.3% to 12 cents
- Sirius Resources N.L. (ASX: SIR) has climbed 4.2% to $3.08
- Mount Gibson Iron Limited (ASX: MGX) has gained 4.1% to 75.5 cents
- DUET Group (ASX: DUE) is up 3.6% to $2.33
These are the five worst performing stocks at midday today: