Have you missed out on these 10 top stocks in 2014?

2014 has been a pretty average year for investors with exposure to the ASX 200 or All Ordinaries via an exchange traded fund or similarly diversified portfolio. The indexes are down between 3% and 4% over the 11-and-a-half months of this year, driven by a plunge in the value of energy and resources companies.

Beating the Index (and Fund Managers)

This year it's been a relatively straightforward task to beat the index; those investors that chose to be underweight energy and resources companies had a great chance of significantly outperforming the ASX 200, and therefore many fund managers that track the index.

10 Top Performers in 2014

There are many companies that have soared to new highs in 2014, but three popular sectors that have stood out are healthcare, consumer packaging and transport. Here are 10 companies at 12-month or longer share price highs heading into the last couple of weeks of 2014:

2015 Top Performers?

I doubt that all of the massive returns above can be repeated again in 2015. In particular, the healthcare companies look stretched, however analysts were saying that a year ago too. I still like the packaging companies like Brambles and Amcor that are exposed to global growth, however one must wonder how much technology could change that industry in years to come.

One industry that has been changed forever by the internet is the classified businesses of traditional newspapers. This industry is still changing and the Motley Fool has found a top stock to take advantage of it.