Best and worst stocks on the ASX today

ASX ends down just 0.1% as fears rise over US Federal Reserve tapering its stimulus program as early as next month

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 15, 2013 4:46 pm AEST

The S&P / ASX 200 Index (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) has ended virtually unchanged at 5,152.4, a drop of just 0.1%, amid fears the US Federal Reserve will begin tapering back its quantitative easing program as early as next month. In the US overnight, the Dow Jones dropped 0.7%, while the S&P 500 lost 0.5%.

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

Perseus Mining (ASX:PRU) climbed 14.9% to 65.5 cents
Silver Lake Resources (ASX:SLR) jumped 7.2% to 89 cents
Oceanagold Corporation (ASX:OGC) added 6.1% to $2.00
PanAust Limited (ASX:PNA) also added 6.1%, closing at $2.27
St Barbara Limited (ASX:SBM) rose 5.4% to 59 cents

These stocks were the losers on the day.

Sundance Resources (ASX:SDL) dropped 6% to 7.9 cents
Aquila Resources (ASX:AQA) lost 5.7% to $2.16
Oz Minerals (ASX:OZL) fell 4.8% to $4.01
Emeco Holdings (ASX:EHL) slipped 4.7% to 20.5 cents
Discovery Metals (ASX:DML) closed down 3.5% at 14 cents

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

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