The top 10 best performing shares of 2015

The S&P/ASX 200 is down 9% for the year, but a number of these companies have seen their share prices double

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 December 14, 2015 4:26 pm AEDT

There's a surprising winner of the best shares from the top 200 companies listed on the ASX in 2015, although a late inclusion managed to snatch the award.

Gold miner Evolution FPO (ASX: EVN) has posted gains of 120.9% so far this year, but Blackmores Limited (ASX: BKL) takes the title with a monster 451% surge. However, Blackmores was only included in the S&P/ASX 200 (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) in September 2015, partly on the back of its performance, as was hotels business Mantra Group Ltd (ASX: MTR) and automotive spare parts retailer Burson Group Ltd (ASX: BAP).

Other notable performers include Mayne Pharma Group Ltd (ASX: MYX), up 99.5%, and Domino's Pizza Enterprises Ltd (ASX: DMP) up 99.3%.

Here's the full list of the top 10 performing shares in the ASX 200 so far this year.

Company	Percent gained
Blackmores Limited	452%
EVOLUTION FPO	121%
Mayne Pharma Group Ltd	100%
Domino's Pizza Enterprises Ltd.	99%
BT Investment Management Ltd (ASX: BTT)	79%
Burson Group Ltd	70%
Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX: NST)	70%
Treasury Wine Estates Ltd (ASX: TWE)	64%
Mantra Group Ltd	59%
Nufarm Limited (ASX: NUF)	57%

Source: CapitalIQ

You'll notice no large banks or resources companies in there – apart from the two gold miners Evolution and Northern Star. Both have had a stellar year, picking up gold mines on the cheap as a number of large global gold miners were forced to sell off assets and shore up their balance sheets.

Northern Star was rated as one of the best resource companies on the ASX back in October by one of our writers, Mitch Sonogan – who has a mining background.

In fact, many of the companies above had transformational years. Will they be big winners again in 2016? They very well may be if the tailwinds they experienced in 2015 continue.

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.