Best and worst stocks on the ASX today

ASX hits 10 days of gains in a row, rising 1.1% for the day

Mike King

Mike King is a Fool.com.au Investment Analyst and Writer. He caught the investing bug more than a decade ago, at a time when the U.S. had invaded Iraq and fear reigned in the markets. His initial success as the markets took off encouraged his passion and thirst for knowledge. With 13 years behind him at one of Australia's largest domestic banks, Mike's passion for stocks led him to join a boutique funds management firm, where he stayed for four years. A seven-year stint in equity research at one of the largest investment banks in the world followed that, giving Mike a thirst to pursue his passion further. Mike holds a Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment and a Graduate Certificate in Financial Planning. His passion is to help retail investors invest better, and that passion was one of his primary reasons for joining The Motley Fool Australia in late 2011. Mike has written thousands of articles since joining, including for Fairfax Media, Yahoo!7, Ninemsn and has also appeared on ABC's The Business. You can see all of Mikes' holdings here

Published August 2, 2013 4:27 pm AEST

The S&P / ASX 200 Index (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) has climbed 1.1% to finish at 5,116.8, its 10th consecutive day of gains, ignoring forecasts of a budget blowout over the next two years. In offshore markets, the Dow Jones gained 0.8%, while the S&P 500 added 1.3% and the UK's FTSE 100 rose 0.9%.

Here are the top five best performing stocks in the index.

Magellan Financial Group (ASX:MFG) gained 5.5% to $12.04
Arrium Limited (ASX:ARI) ex-OneSteel added 5% to $1.05
Linc Energy (ASX:LNC) rose 4.6% to $1.805
Transfield Services (ASX:TSE) saw gains of 4.4%, closing at 95.5 cents
Cardno Limited (ASX:CDD) finished up 4.3%, at $5.84

These stocks were the losers on the day (all gold miners – in fact, most of the top 10 losing stocks in the index today were gold stocks)

Resolute Mining (ASX:RSG) dropped 10.1% to 71.5 cents
Silver Lake Resources (ASX:SLR) fell 8.6% to 69 cents
Medusa Mining (ASX:MML) lost 8.5% to $2.05
Beadell Resources (ASX:BDR) closed down 8% at 69 cents
Northern Star Resources (ASX:NST) was down 7.6% at 79 cents

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Motley Fool writer/analyst Mike King owns shares in Silver Lake Resources.

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