The 10 top-performing shares of 2021 on the ASX 200
14 Feb 2022
Find out which five companies had the biggest growth in share price between 4 January and 17 December, 2021.
The past year has not been without its challenges but overall it has turned out to be a better year for investors than 2020. “2021 was again dominated by the coronavirus pandemic, along with concern about higher inflation and monetary tightening but shares unlisted assets and balanced growth super funds saw strong returns,” pointed out AMP’s head of investment strategy & chief economist, Dr Shane Oliver. He noted that Aussie shares did better than AMP expected.
The ASX 200 started the year at 6,684.25. There was some volatility in the first half of the year before it hit a high of 7,628.92 on August 13. On Friday 17 December the ASX 200 closed at 7,303.97 – a fair bit higher than it was in January.
The top-performing shares
Some companies have performed better than others. Canstar crunched the numbers to come up with the top 10 shares on the ASX 200 based on the growth of the share price from 4 January (which was the first trading day of 2021) to 17 December. Keep in mind that past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance, but the results are very impressive, as you can see from the table below.
The table also shows how much money you’d have if you had invested $1,000 in any of these shares. To put these numbers in context, Canstar’s calculations show that the total return for the S&P ASX 200 for the same period would have been 14.7% and $1,000 invested on 4 January would have been worth $1,147 on 17 December.
Top 10 top-performing shares on the ASX 200 in 2021
← Mobile/tablet users, scroll sideways to view full table →
| Code | Company | Opening Share Price 4 Jan 2021 |
Closing Share Price 17 Dec 2021 |
Percent Change |
Value of $1k Investment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NVX | Novonix Ltd | $1.22 | $8.94 | 632.8% | $7,328 |
| LTR | Liontown Resources Ltd | $0.34 | $1.56 | 357.4% | $4,574 |
| IMU | Imugene Ltd | $0.10 | $0.46 | 355.0% | $4,550 |
| PLS | Pilbara Minerals Ltd | $0.87 | $2.75 | 216.1% | $3,161 |
| UWL | Uniti Group Ltd | $1.71 | $4.64 | 171.3% | $2,713 |
| LYC | Lynas Rare EARTHS Ltd | $4.00 | $9.00 | 125.0% | $2,250 |
| PNI | Pinnacle Investment Management Group Ltd |
$7.25 | $15.41 | 112.6% | $2,126 |
| CHN | Chalice Mining Ltd | $4.00 | $8.45 | 111.3% | $2,113 |
| WTC | Wisetech Global Ltd | $30.77 | $58.52 | 90.2% | $1,902 |
| HMC | Home Consortium Ltd | $3.92 | $7.27 | 85.5% | $1,855 |
Source: www.canstar.com.au – 17/12/2021. Table sorted in descending order by percentage change.
The star performer of 2021 was battery materials and technology company Novonix Ltd (ASX: NVX). Its share price grew by a whopping 632.8% from $1.22 on 4 January to $8.94 on 17 December. That means a $1,000 investment at the beginning of the year could have turned into $7,328 by 17 December. It’s worth noting that the share price has tumbled in December after it hit a high of $12.47 on 2 December.
In second spot is Liontown Resources (ASX: LTR) which is a mineral exploration and development company focused on the development of high-quality lithium & tantalum projects in Australia. Its return of 357.4% might not be as high as that of Novonix but I don’t think many people would complain if they had invested $1,000 at the start of the year as they could have had $4,574 on 17 December.
Not far behind is Imugene (ASX: IMU), a biotechnology company working in cancer immunotherapy. Its share price grew by 355% from $0.10 on 4 January to $0.46 on 17 December. This is still a fair bit lower than its high of $0.61 in early November.
As you can see from the table, you can have potentially more than doubled your money with an investment of $1,000 in most of the stocks on the top 10 list. And you would have come close to it with Wisetech Global and Home Consortium which are ninth and tenth.
| Provider | Fee for $15K trade* | Ongoing fees# | Trade with live prices^ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
  |
 |
$15.00 | Yes | Yes |
 |
|
$7.50 | Yes | Yes |
 |
|
$14.98 | Yes | Yes |
View all Canstar rated Online Share Trading products. View Disclosures.
* Online brokerage fee for a $15,000 trade based on the number of transactions specified in the search inputs
# Ongoing fee for the account. There may be waivers and discounts subject to account use
^ The ability to view and trade on live prices
Cover image source: fizkes/Shutterstock.com
Thanks for visiting Canstar, Australia’s biggest financial comparison site*
This article was reviewed by our Editor-at-Large Effie Zahos before it was updated, as part of our fact-checking process.
Try our Investor Hub comparison tool to instantly compare Canstar expert rated options.
