Best and worst stocks on the ASX today

ASX closes up 0.5% and hits new five-year highs

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 September 16, 2013 4:42 pm AEST

The S&P / ASX 200 Index (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) jumped to a new five-year high as it closed up 0.5% to 5,248, as investors cheered the news that Larry Summers had pulled out of the race to replace US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke. Summers was viewed as more hard line on quantitative easing than other contenders. Easing Syrian tensions have also played a part in market gains today. Looking at the sectors, gold was the strongest performer rising 3.3%, while utilities dropped 0.7%.

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

Billabong International (ASX:BBG) soared 7% to 46 cents
Silver Lake Resources (ASX:SLR) rose 6.6% to 80.5 cents
Emeco Holdings (ASX:EHL) climbed 6.3% to 25.5 cents
Lynas Corporation (ASX:LYC) jumped 6.2% to 43 cents
Kingsgate Consolidated (ASX:KCN) added 5.6% to $1.79

These stocks were the losers on the day.

Discovery Metals (ASX:DML) dropped 11.5% to 11.5 cents
Ten Network Holdings (ASX:TEN) lost 4.5% to 32 cents
Cudeco Limited (ASX:CDU) fell 3.8% to $2.01
Sirius Resources (ASX:SIR) slipped 3.7% to $2.89
Breville Group (ASX:BRG) closed down 3.3% at $8.57

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Motley Fool writer/analyst Mike King owns shares in Silver Lake Resources, Kingsgate Consolidated and Sirius Resources.

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