Best and worst stocks on the ASX today

ASX closes down 0.7% as regional markets headed south

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 20, 2013 4:34 pm AEST

The S&P / ASX 200 Index (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) has closed down 0.7% at 5,078.2, with investors likely concerned that the US Federal Reserve will withdraw its stimulus measures in the near future. The health care, A-REIT and telecommunication services sectors managed to post positive returns, while the gold sector was the worst, dropping 2.6%.

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

Arrium (ASX:ARI) ex-OneSteel climbed 16.8% to $1.15
Breville Group (ASX:BRG) rose 10.9% to $8.22
Fleetwood Corporation (ASX:FWD) added 8.2% to $3.68
Sonic Healthcare (ASX:SHL) closed up 5.8% at $15.41
Challenger Ltd (ASX:CGF) saw its shares rise 5.8% to $4.95

These stocks were the losers on the day.

Perseus Mining (ASX:PRU) crashed 10.2% to 79 cents
Billabong International (ASX:BBG) dropped 8.9% to 56.5 cents
Energy World Corporation (ASX:EWC) lost 8.5% to 48.5 cents
Boart Longyear (ASX:BLY) slipped 7.2% to 58 cents
Silver Lake Resources (ASX:SLR) closed down 7.1% at 91.5 cents

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

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