Best and worst stocks on the ASX today

ASX ends up 0.9%, and has now gained close to 10% since late June 2013

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 23, 2013 4:43 pm AEST

The S&P / ASX 200 Index (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) has surged 0.9% higher to finish the week at 5,123.4, following gains on overseas market overnight. In the US, the Dow Jones added 0.4%, while the S&P 500 gained 0.9%, while in Europe, the UK FTSE 100 rose 0.9%.

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

St Barbara (ASX:SBM) rocketed up 12.9% to 79 cents
Resolute Mining (ASX:RSG) climbed 9.7% to $1.02
Sims Metal Management (ASX:SGM) rose 8.2% to $9.64
Kingsgate Consolidated (ASX:KCN) added 8.2% to $2.65
Senex Energy (ASX:SXY) moved up 7.1% to 75.5 cents

These stocks were the losers on the day.

Discovery Metals (ASX:DML) plunged 14.9% to 20 cents
Spark Infrastructure (ASX:SKI) dropped 4.8% to $1.68
The Reject Shop (ASX:TRS) slipped 4.1% to $17.14
Atlas Iron (ASX:AGO) lost 3.6% to 80.5 cents
Treasury Wine Estates (ASX:TWE) fell 3.2% to $4.55

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Motley Fool writer/analyst Mike King owns shares in Kingsgate Consolidated.

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