Welcome to your five-minute recap of the trading day and how the experts saw it.

The numbers: An arm wrestle between the rising tech sector and falling resources stocks ended in a draw on Thursday, with the Australian sharemarket falling after hitting a two-month high in early trade to close flat.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index ended the day at 6,974.9 points – just one point lower than Wednesday’s close – after briefly breaking the 7,000 point mark at the open.

Technology shares pulled the local bourse higher in early trade following a rise on Wall Street overnight, before eventually closing 1.9 per cent higher. Computershare was 1 per cent higher, Megaport climbed 4.9 per cent and Objective Corporation rose 7 per cent to $16.60.

Communication stocks also performed well, up 1.8 per cent, with Seek adding 3.8 per cent and Carsales.com gaining 2.6 per cent to $21.90.

However, energy stocks weighed the index down as the session wore on, dropping by 2.2 per cent, with Woodside sliding 3.1 per cent as oil prices declined. The major miners also declined on softer commodity prices, with BHP 1.1 per cent lower and Fortescue falling by 2 per cent.

The Australian dollar continues to strengthen against the US currency after it weakened following the RBA’s rate hike on Tuesday. It is now worth US69.7¢.

The lifters: Tyro Payments +17.5%, Pointsbet +11.6%, Imugene +10.9%

The laggards: Orica -9.3%, Graincorp -6.6%, Zip Co -4.5%