Best and worst stocks on the ASX today

ASX closes up 0.1%, while the Aussie dollar continues to fall

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 5, 2013 4:32 pm AEST

The S&P / ASX 200 Index (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) has dropped 0.1% to finish at 5,111.3, on a low volume day thanks to a bank holiday in NSW. Gold was the best performing sector, rising more than 2%, while the A-REIT (property trust) sector was the worst, dropping 0.8%.

The Australian dollar continued its slide, on the back of weak retail sales figures out today, currently buying 88.9 US cents.

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

Resolute Mining (ASX:RSG) jumped 10.5% to 79 cents
Buru Energy (ASX:BRU) rose 7.9% to $1.845
Northern Star Resources (ASX:NST) climbed 7.6% to 85 cents
Silver Lake Resources (ASX:SLR) added 7.3% to 74 cents
Medusa Mining (ASX:MML) finished at $2.17, a rise of 5.9%

These stocks were the losers on the day

Paladin Energy (ASX:PDN) dropped 27.5% to 72.5 cents
Virgin Australia Holdings (ASX:VAH) fell 4.4% to 43.5 cents after a profit warning
Emeco Holdings (ASX:EHL) lost 3.9% to 24.5 cents
Telecom Corporation of New Zealand (ASX:TEL) closed down 3.9% at $2.00
Senex Energy (ASX:SXY) ended at 75 cents, a fall of 3.2%

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

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