Although the S&P/ASX 200 (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) finished the week on a disappointing note on Friday, the benchmark index still managed to carve out a solid 2.8% gain over the week.
While the majority of shares on the ASX 200 posted gains for the period, some stood out with impressively strong gains.
The best performers on the index last week were as follows:
The Emeco Holdings Limited (ASX: EHL) share price was the best performer on the ASX 200 last week with a 19% gain. This has been quite a turnaround for the earthmoving equipment hire company as it was actually the worst performer on the index the previous week. That selloff was driven by the release of weak manufacturing data which appeared to show the trade war was having a negative impact on China's economic growth. So news that U.S. and China trade talks have been going well unsurprisingly caused its shares to rebound this week.
The WiseTech Global Ltd (ASX: WTC) share price was the next best performer with a 16% gain last week. A rebound in U.S. tech stocks last week appears to have been the catalyst for this impressive gain. The logistics platform provider's shares weren't the only ones climbing notably higher in the tech sector. Fellow WAAAX members Appen Ltd (ASX: APX) and Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (ASX: APT) saw their share prices rise by a sizeable 11% and 8%, respectively, last week.
The Worleyparsons Limited (ASX: WOR) share price wasn't far behind WiseTech Global with a gain of just over 15.5%. The mining services company's gain appears to have been driven by a rise in oil prices. Although prices fell on Friday and ended a 9-day winning streak, last week the WTI crude oil price gained an impressive 7.5% and the Brent crude oil price rose 6% according to CNBC. This strong performance also led to the Beach Energy Ltd (ASX: BPT) share price rising by 15.5% last week.
