With only a few hours of trade left in the week, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is up 1.9% since last Friday's close, with three fast-rising ASX 200 stocks doing plenty of the heavy lifting.
Two of the outperforming stocks are gold miners, while the third is involved in education.
So, which three companies are shooting the lights out this week?
I'm glad you asked!
Image source: Getty Images
ASX 200 stocks smashing the benchmark this week
The first ASX 200 stock that's made investors quite happy this week is Aussie gold miner Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX: NST).
Northern Star shares are up 4.1% at the time of writing, changing hands for $18.11 apiece.
Shares closed last Friday trading for $15.30 each. That sees the Northern Star share price up 18.4%, with the stock closing in green every day this week.
The company kicked off the week well, with a separate investor presentation released on both Monday and Tuesday.
Shares in the ASX 200 stock closed up 5.6% on Monday following the miner's flagship KCGM site visit presentation.
Located in Western Australia, KCGM accounted for 26% of Northern Star's total gold sold in FY 2025. And with 39 million ounces, KCGM accounts for 55% of the miner's mineral resources. And KCGM's 14 million ounce ore reserves make up 65% of the miner's total ore reserves.
With these figures in mind, investors reacted positively to Northern Star's expansion plans for its core asset.
The project's process plants currently have a capacity of 12 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa). Management forecasts that this will increase to 23Mtpa in FY 2027, 25Mtpa in FY 2028, and 27Mtpa in FY 2029 and beyond.
Which brings us to the second ASX 200 stock smashing the benchmark returns this week, IDP Education Ltd (ASX: IEL).
Shares in the language testing and student placement provider are down 3.4% today at $4.23 apiece.
But that still leaves shares up a welcome 17.2% since last Friday's close of $3.61.
There was no fresh news out from IDP over the week. But investors look to have bought the stock following news that the Aussie government is increasing the cap on new international students by 9% to 295,000 in the 2026 academic year.
Leading the pack
Which brings us to the top-performing ASX 200 stock on my list for the week, Westgold Resources Ltd (ASX: WGX).
Westgold shares closed last Friday trading for $2.53 each. At the time of writing, shares are up 6.6% in intraday trading today, swapping hands for $3.09 apiece.
That sees this ASX gold stock up a whopping 22.1% over the week.
Like Northern Star, Westgold shares have finished well into the green every day this week.
The miner enjoyed a healthy boost on Thursday after releasing its guidance for FY 2026.
Investors bid up the stock, with Westgold forecasting full-year production of 345,000 to 385,000 ounces of gold. That represents a 5.7% to 18% increase on the miner's gold production in FY 2025.
