Our Winners and Losers of 2013 series takes a look at the highs and lows of the main markets over the last year. Here we look at the top performing sectors.

Interactive Investor has already examined 2013’s top-performing companies, but which sectors performed well as a whole and why?

Automobiles and parts +62.98%

Beating off the competition to make it into the top spot, the automobiles and parts sector has had a very strong year, with strong increases in the number of new orders boosting employment and output throughout the year.

In June, the UK automative industry was boosted when the government announced that it had set up a £3 million campaign to repatriate the industry’s supply chain and capitalise on UK opportunities. This will support UK manufacturers of automobiles and parts.

Top performers within the sector include Enova Systems (), which has capitalised on the growing demand for green transport with its electric, hybrid electric and fuel cell drive systems, and automative and aerospace parts manufacturer GKN ().

Fixed-line telecommunications +61.16%

Despite a decrease in the number of people using fixed-line telephones, the fixed-line telecommunications sector was still boosted in 2013 by the fixed-line broadband component of the sector.

Ofcom data shows that while there were 0.5% fewer fixed lines in the UK at the end of the first quarter than a year previously, there were also 4.6% more residential and small and medium enterprise broadband connections.

BT Group () has the largest proportion of market share in the sector, with 46% of fixed-telephone revenues and 29.8% of fixed broadband connections. But 2013’s best-performing company was AdEPT Telecom (), with 113.82% growth in its share price over the year.

Mobile telecommunications +52.31%

In contrast to the fixed-line telecommunications sector, Ofcom data showed mobile telephone revenue driving the sector in 2013 while mobile broadband usage waned.

Mobile revenues were up 2.3% to £4 billion in the first quarter, while the number of mobile broadband subscribers were down 1.8%.

Mobile commerce and marketing company Zamano (ZMNO) was the sector leader for 2013, up 226.26% on the back of strong operating performance in the first half. Other notable performers were Mobile Tornado () and Messaging International ().

The most memorable story from the sector in 2013 was Vodafone's () sale of its 45% stake in Verizon Wireless to former partner Verizon Communications for $130 billion (£79 billion), one of the biggest deals in corporate history.

Vodafone was back in the news recently with rumours that it could be preparing for a takeover of BSkyB () and with US giant AT&T also studying Vodafone with interest, 2014 could be another exciting year for the mobile telecommunications sector.

Forestry & Paper +49.81%

The forestry and paper sector’s performance mirrored that of the FTSE All Share in 2013, albeit that its rises and falls were sharper and its overall percentage increase much greater at 49.81%.

Accountant PricewaterhouseCoopers reported at the end of June that forestry and paper companies’ net earnings had significantly improved in the first and second quarters of the year.

This significant improvement, the accountant said, had strong links to the recovery of the housing market. As this recovery created demand for new houses, so too did it increase demand for timber.

However, the strongest performers in the sector deal not in timber but in paper. James Cropper (), which rose 116.42% in 2014, is a specialist paper manufacturer, and the second-highest performer, Mondi (), is a packaging and paper group.

General Financial +40.9%

The final winner of 2013 is the general financial sector. After a number of difficult years following the financial crisis of 2007, this sector is finally beginning to flourish again as signs of improvement in the economy bring benefits both in terms of business opportunities and returning investors who had lost faith in financial institutions.

While a 40.9% rise is perfectly respectable, some companies within the sector blew this figure out of the water.

The two biggest winners, both listed on the Alternative Investment Market ( AIM ), saw their share prices rise by more than 500%. Investment holding company Capital Management and Investment () and regeneration investor Sigma Capital (SIG), recorded rises of 553.85% and 540.82% respectively.