Best and worst stocks on the ASX today

ASX soars more than 1%, hitting new 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 October 28, 2013 3:20 pm AEDT

The S&P / ASX 200 Index (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) has soared, hitting another new high and finishing up more than 1% at 5,443.6. Overseas markets were all up on Friday, with the Dow Jones and the S&P 500 both rising 0.4%, while the UK's FTSE 100 added 0.1%. Most sectors finished in the black, with health care and telecommunications leading the way with rises of 1.8% and 1.4% respectively.

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

Iress Limited (ASX: IRE) soared 6% to $9.95
Fortescue Metals Group (ASX: FMG) climbed 4% to $5.42
Arrium (ASX: ARI) ex- OneSteel rose 3.9% to $1.47
Fairfax Media (ASX: FXJ) added 3.6% to 58 cents
IOOF Holdings (ASX: IFL) closed up 3.6% at $9.30

These stocks were the losers on the day.

Navitas (ASX: NVT) dropped 9.4% to $5.70
Transfield Services (ASX: TSE) fell 6.3% to $1.42
Kingsgate Consolidated (ASX: KCN) lost 5% to $1.53
Regis Resources (ASX: RRL) closed down 4.8% at $3.58
Boart Longyear (ASX: BLY) slipped 4.4% to 43.5 cents

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