It ended up being a bouncy — but overall positive — day for the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) for this Thursday's session.
Investors started out on the wrong side of the investing bed this morning, sending the ASX 200 into red territory. But sentiment soon recovered, and the index ended up finishing a decent 0.26% higher at 7,357.4 points this afternoon.
That was all despite a negative trading day on the US markets last night (our time).
The Dow Jones Industrial Average Index (DJX: .DJI) had a pretty sad time, losing 0.54%. It was far worse for the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index (NASDAQ: .IXIC), which recorded a nasty drop of 1.17%.
But back to the ASX now, and let's see what was going on with the local markets today with a look at the different ASX sectors.
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Winners and losers
It was a bit of a mixed bag within the ASX 200 sectors this Thursday, with a fairly even split between winners and losers.
The worst place to be this session was unambiguously in ASX tech stocks. The S&P/ASX 200 Information Technology Index (ASX: XIJ) had a horrible day, losing a chunky 1.79% of its value by market close.
That was by far the worst that it got, though. Our next-to-worst sector was utilities shares, evidenced by the S&P/ASX 200 Utilities Index (ASX: XUJ)'s 0.41% fall.
Consumer staples shares fared slightly better, but the S&P/ASX 200 Consumer Staples Index (ASX: XSJ) still endured a drop of 0.32%
That was mirrored by ASX gold shares, with the All Ordinaries Gold Index (ASX: XGD) also declining 0.32%.
Let's get on to the winners now, starting with energy shares. The S&P/ASX 200 Energy Index (ASX: XEJ) was easily the best place to be today, with its encouraging rise of 2.27%.
After that, we have consumer discretionary shares. The S&P/ASX 200 Consumer Discretionary Index (ASX: XDJ) rose by a decent 0.6% by the close of trading.
ASX healthcare stocks and real estate investment trusts (REITs) were two more bright spots. The S&P/ASX 200 Health Care Index (ASX: XHJ) and the S&P/ASX 200 A-REIT Index (ASX: XPJ) ended up gaining 0.5% and 0.46%, respectively.
Finally, ASX mining shares also proved to be good investments this Thursday, as you can see by the 0.3% jump the S&P/ASX 200 Materials Index (ASX: XMJ) enjoyed.
Top 10 ASX 200 shares countdown
We had some big moves all around on the ASX stock market today. But our best-performing share by a mile was lithium stock Lake Resources N.L. (ASX: LKE).
Lake shares rocketed by a monstrous 35% earlier in the day and closed 27.27% higher, despite no news at all from the company.
Here are the other winning shares from today's session:
| ASX-listed company | Share price | Price change |
| Lake Resources N.L. (ASX: LKE) | $0.21 | 27.27% |
| Boral Limited (ASX: BLD) | $4.74 | 8.47% |
| Sayona Mining Ltd (ASX: SYA) | $0.14 | 7.69% |
| AUB Group Ltd (ASX: AUB) | $28.58 | 6.25% |
| Paladin Energy Ltd (ASX: PDN) | $0.805 | 5.92% |
| New Hope Corporation Limited (ASX: NHC) | $5.88 | 5.76% |
| AMP Ltd (ASX: AMP) | $1.15 | 4.55% |
| Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX: WHC) | $7.45 | 4.34% |
| Beach Energy Ltd (ASX: BPT) | $1.72 | 3.61% |
| Lovisa Holdings Ltd (ASX: LOV) | $20.81 | 2.71% |
Our top 10 shares countdown is a recurring end-of-day summary to let you know which companies were making big moves on the day. Check in at Fool.com.au after the weekday market closes to see which stocks make the countdown.
