The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) was on form last week and recorded a very strong gain. The benchmark index finished the period at 5755.7 points, 4.7% higher than where it started it.

While the majority of shares on the index pushed higher last week, some climbed more than most.

Here’s why these were the best performing ASX 200 shares over the period:

The Southern Cross Media Group Ltd (ASX: SXL) share price was the best performer on the index by some distance with a 62% gain. This media company’s shares have been incredibly volatile this month and have regularly been among the worst and best performers. Its share price gain this week was so strong the ASX sent it a price query. Southern Cross advised the stock exchange operator that it could not explain why its shares had risen so much.

The Virgin Money UK (ASX: VUK) share price was the next best performer with a gain of 22.9%. Investors were piling into Virgin Money and other banking shares last week. This appears to have been on the belief that they have been oversold during the pandemic. The big four banks all climbed notably higher last week.

The Boral Limited (ASX: BLD) share price wasn’t far behind with a gain of 21% last week. This was despite there being no news out of the building materials company. But with its shares down significantly from their 52-week high, some investors may believe they had fallen into the bargain bin. Boral’s shares are still down 46% from their high, even after this strong gain.

The Austal Limited (ASX: ASB) share price was a strong performer and rose 20.1% over the period. A good portion of the shipbuilder’s gain came on Friday after it upgraded its FY 2020 guidance. Austal advised that its revenue this year will hit ~$2 billion, while its earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) will be no less than $125 million. As a comparison, the company’s previous guidance was for revenue of at least $1.9 billion and EBIT of no less than $110 million.

More reading

• Why this ASX 200 share is up 8% and poised for more explosive growth
• Why Afterpay, Austal, Kogan, & Northern Star shares are charging higher
• ASX 200 down 1.2%: Westpac tumbles, Appen reaffirms guidance, Costa CEO to retire
• The best performing ASX 200 stock today may have more room to climb
• 3 ASX 200 shares to buy for a Goldilocks-style bounce back

James Mickleboro has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of Austal Limited. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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Do you have $5,000 sitting in a savings account and no immediate use for it? Then investing it into the share market could be your first step towards becoming wealthy.

This is because if you are able to invest $5,000 into the share market once a year for a long period of time, you can turn it into considerably more.

Over the last 30 years the Australian share market has provided investors with an average annual return of 9.5%.

This means that if you had invested $5,000 into the share market each year since 1990 and earned the market return, you would be sitting on a small fortune now.

Those investments would now be worth approximately $825,000. Which I believe demonstrates how rewarding long-term buy and hold investing can be.

With that in mind, I have picked out three top ASX shares which I believe could be great long term investments:

a2 Milk Company Ltd (ASX: A2M)

I think a2 Milk Company is one of the best growth shares on the Australian share market. It has been growing at an astonishing rate over the last five years and shows no signs of stopping any time soon. This is thanks to its expanding fresh milk footprint and the insatiable appetite for its infant formula in China. The good news is that it still only has a modest China consumption market share of 6.6%. I believe this gives it a long runway for growth over the next decade.

Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT)

I think this payments company could be a fantastic long term investment. Although its shares have been on fire this year, I believe they can still climb materially higher over the next decade. This is due to its explosive growth in the United States and its massive global market opportunity. In respect to the latter, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the company expand into mainland Europe and Asia in the coming years.

ResMed Inc. (ASX: RMD)

Another company which I think has enormous long term growth potential is ResMed. It is one of the world’s leading medical device companies with a focus on the growing sleep treatment market. Given the quality of its masks and software solutions, I expect it to profit greatly from the proliferation of sleep apnoea.

More reading

• 10 top ASX growth shares to buy in June for strong returns
• Can gold really protect your ASX share portfolio?
• How I would build a $100,000 ASX portfolio with ETFs
• The TPG share price is up 26.68% in 2020. Too late to invest?
• 3 ASX dividend shares with yields over 10%

Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of A2 Milk and AFTERPAY T FPO. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended ResMed Inc. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

The post How you can get very rich with ASX 200 shares appeared first on Motley Fool Australia.

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The best ASX growth shares are the ones that are going to make strong returns for your portfolio over the years. I’d buy these top ideas in June that will hopefully create those excellent market-beating returns this decade:

Pushpay Holdings Ltd (ASX: PPH)

Pushpay is one my favourite ASX growth shares now. Pushpay is an electronic donation business which is currently focused on the US medium and large church sector. The coronavirus is causing more churches to promote electronic giving, particularly in places where people can’t congregate yet. In FY21 the company is expecting earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation and foreign currency (EBITDAF) to approximately double.

MFF Capital Investments Ltd (ASX: MFF)

MFF Capital Investments is one of the best globally-focused listed investment companies (LIC) in my opinion. Chris Mackay owns a lot of MFF Capital shares and he has expertly guided the LIC to strong returns over the past decade. It currently has a large cash position which can be used for protection or opportunities over the coming months, whatever happens with COVID-19. It has large holdings of excellent the payment businesses Visa and Mastercard.

Bubs Australia Ltd (ASX: BUB)

Bubs is another of my favourite ASX growth shares right now. It produces and sells a variety of goat milk products. There are two key aspects I’m looking at right now, aside from the obvious stellar revenue growth. The first is that it’s rapidly expanding its distribution outside of Australia. Vietnam and China alone are two large markets which are producing attractive growth for Bubs. The other aspect is that its operating cashflow was positive last quarter, so it’s a safer prospect from here.

Magellan Global Trust (ASX: MGG)

I wouldn’t describe many of Australia’s blue chips as top ASX growth shares. So what we can do is choose to put our money in investment picks which give that exposure to leading growth shares overseas. I’m talking about businesses like Microsoft, Facebook, Alibaba, Visa, Alphabet and so on. This listed investment trust (LIT) just wants to invest in the best of the best in the world. It’s pretty defensive too in normal market sell-offs.

Altium Limited (ASX: ALU)

Altium is another of my top ASX growth share ideas. Though it’s priced quite highly at the moment considering potential COVID-19 impacts. Altium is an electronic PCB software business helping engineers design the products, devices and vehicles of the future. It’s aiming for market dominance this decade and I believe it has the management and plan to do it. It has been growing its profit margins and cash on the balance sheet. It could be tough in 2020, but if the share price were to fall again I’d be looking to snap up some shares.

City Chic Collective Ltd (ASX: CCX)

City Chic is one of the most compelling retail ASX growth shares in my opinion. It has a very high proportion of sales that come from online. That’s helpful to know that the customer base already knows how to get hold of the product. City Chic is growing internationally and I like the strategy of making international acquisitions as long as they are integrated well and can be adequately profitable.

Kogan.com Ltd (ASX: KGN)

Kogan.com is another exciting retail-related ASX growth share. During the coronavirus restrictions the company saw an enormous jump in sales volume last month. Ongoing growth might not be as strong going forwards, but it may help accelerate Australians to shop more online. I like the network effects that Kogan.com has where it can sell a variety of other affordable services to a growing customer base such as phone services, insurance and finance-related offerings.

A2 Milk Company Ltd (ASX: A2M)

A2 Milk has been one of the best ASX growth shares for some time. It has built a brand of quality and it happily relies on other companies to provide the materials and production, allowing A2 Milk to have high margins. With growth across Asia and North America, A2 Milk is one of watch. It also a very nice cash pile on the balance sheet too. I like that it’s balancing short-term profit with investing for long-term growth.

WAM Microcap Limited (ASX: WMI)

Some of the best ASX growth shares are among the smallest. Small caps may not have the strongest economic moats in the world, but their small size means it’s much easier to double in size than a business like Microsoft.

WAM Microcap has an excellent small cap investment team which is very talented at finding the undervalued stars. Before the coronavirus it had generated very strong investment returns.

It also comes with a very nice dividend. If WAM Microcap were to get too big it would become less effective at investing in small caps.

Duxton Water Ltd (ASX: D2O)

A water entitlement business wouldn’t strike you as an ASX growth share. I believe there are two good reasons to consider it. The first is that water values are steadily rising over time. That’s partly due to the drier weather. But also because there are more high-value crops that need more water, like almonds.

The other reason is that it’s priced at a very large discount to its monthly net tangible assets (NTA) which gives a nice margin of safety even if water values were to drop in the short-term because of more rainfall.

Foolish takeaway

I like all of these ASX growth shares. At the current prices I’d buy Pushpay, WAM Microcap and Bubs. But I’d really like to buy them all for my portfolio.

More reading

• How you can get very rich with ASX 200 shares
• How to make $1,000 a month in dividends
• If you invested $10,000 in the a2 Milk Company ASX listing, this is how much you’d have now
• Brokers name 3 ASX 200 shares to buy right now
• Why Afterpay, Austal, Kogan, & Northern Star shares are charging higher

Tristan Harrison owns shares of Altium, DUXTON FPO, Magellan Flagship Fund Ltd, MAGLOBTRST UNITS, and WAM MICRO FPO. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of BUBS AUST FPO. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of and has recommended Kogan.com ltd and PUSHPAY FPO NZX. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of A2 Milk and Altium. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended BUBS AUST FPO and DUXTON FPO. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

The post 10 top ASX growth shares to buy in June for strong returns appeared first on Motley Fool Australia.

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