Best and worst stocks on the ASX today

ASX drops 0.8%, its third down day in a row

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 November 20, 2013 3:29 pm AEDT

The S&P / ASX 200 Index (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) has dropped 0.8% to close at 5,307.7, the third consecutive day of falls. Mining services stocks were hammered, after WorleyParsons announced a major profit downgrade. And the market falls were despite the US Federal Reserve chairman indicating that economic stimulus would continue for sometime, something that has been driving the stock market higher for a while.

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

St Barbara (ASX: SBM) gained 4.8% to 32.5 cents
Drillsearch Energy (ASX: DLS) also gained 4.8% to $1.30
Perseus Mining (ASX: PRU) added 4.7% to 33.5 cents
Senex Energy (ASX: SXY) rose 3.9% to 80 cents
Evolution Mining (ASX: EVN) closed up 3.5% at 73.5 cents

These stocks were the losers on the day.

WorleyParsons (ASX: WOR) crashed 25.9% to $16.00
SMS Management (ASX: SMX) dropped 5.6% to $4.08
Monadelphous Group (ASX: MND) lost 5.3% to $17.01
Boart Longyear (ASX: BLY) fell 5.1% to 37 cents
Decmil Group (ASX: DCG) slipped 4.6% to $2.06

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