4 stocks crushed on the ASX today

The All Ordinaries index gains 0.7% in late afternoon trading, but these four were heavily sold off

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 January 27, 2015 3:46 pm AEDT

The All Ordinaries (ASX: AORD) (ASX: XAO) is up 0.7% in late afternoon trading, despite resources stocks taking a pasting today.

Much of that is due to yield hunters looking for income as central banks around the world keep interest rates at record lows.

But that didn't stop investors throwing these four companies out of the bath…

Newsat Limited (ASX: NWT) dropped 21.4% to 11 cents, after warning that it had defaulted on its payments to Lockheed Martin for the construction of the Jabiru-1 satellite. As my colleague Andrew Mudie notes in this article, Newsat faces a number of issues, and could be forced to issue a massive amount of new shares to either current shareholders or new investors to overcome some of its issues. Investors may want to steer well clear – Newsat has the potential to come crashing down to earth.

Gold miner Silver Lake Resources Limited (ASX: SLR) dropped 20% to 24 cents, after again disappointing shareholders with a 19% increase in production costs during the December quarter. Not only that, but Silver Lake also lowered its production guidance from between 125,000 to 135,000 ounces this financial year, to around 120,000 ounces. The company's all-in sustaining costs blew out to $1,413 an ounce during the quarter, from $1,185 per ounce in the September quarter.

Another gold miner, Doray Minerals Limited (ASX: DRM) dropped 9.3% to 49 cents. Doray is close to completing its takeover of Mutiny Gold Limited (ASX: MYG), today announcing that it now holds 88.15% of Mutiny. Doray also has 94% of Mutiny's listed options (ASX: MYGO) on issue. The gold miner recently reported that it had produced 20, 963 ounces of gold in the December quarter, and was on track to meet guidance of between 85,000 and 90,000 ounces of gold this financial year.

Mint Payments Ltd (ASX: MNW) dropped 10.2% to 6.2 cents, despite no news from the mobile payments provider. Shares have dropped 19.5% in the past 5 business days and 83% since this time last year. That's despite a string of new contract (albeit smallish) announcements, but no major one since the MYOB partnership in February 2014. Shareholders are likely waiting for another big announcement and until then, are avoiding the stock.

Automatic Renewal

By taking up this offer, you will also be enrolled in our auto-renewal program, which is our way of making your ongoing subscription easier by ensuring uninterrupted service. Don't worry, though – you're not locked in, and can cancel your auto-renewal at any time before each 'anniversary' date without question or penalty.