ASX Hot Stocks: Lynas, MacMahon and Chandler Macleod

ASX rises 0.2%, but two of these stocks fell by more than 7%

Mike King

Mike King is a Fool.com.au Investment Analyst and Writer. He caught the investing bug more than a decade ago, at a time when the U.S. had invaded Iraq and fear reigned in the markets. His initial success as the markets took off encouraged his passion and thirst for knowledge. With 13 years behind him at one of Australia's largest domestic banks, Mike's passion for stocks led him to join a boutique funds management firm, where he stayed for four years. A seven-year stint in equity research at one of the largest investment banks in the world followed that, giving Mike a thirst to pursue his passion further. Mike holds a Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment and a Graduate Certificate in Financial Planning. His passion is to help retail investors invest better, and that passion was one of his primary reasons for joining The Motley Fool Australia in late 2011. Mike has written thousands of articles since joining, including for Fairfax Media, Yahoo!7, Ninemsn and has also appeared on ABC's The Business. You can see all of Mikes' holdings here

Published May 14, 2013 4:43 pm AEST

The S&P / ASX 200 Index (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) has finished up slightly, rising 0.2% to close at 5,221. Volumes were half that of a normal trading day, with many investors staying on the sidelines before the Federal government's Budget announcement tonight.

The Australian dollar has continued to trade below parity against the US dollar, currently buying 99.9 cents.

Here's why these three stocks are hot right now.

MacMahon Holdings (ASX: MAH) shares rocketed up by more than 25% to close at 22 cents, after the mining services company issued a positive update, with its mining business having a significant order book of secured work. MacMahon has an order book of $3.5 billion, with another $2.5 billion of projects under tender. Financial year 2014 revenue is forecast to be around $1.4 billion, with approximately 80% of that work secured. Still, we've seen what happened to Coffey yesterday, with contracts cancelled and delayed, and that could still happen to MacMahon.

Chandler Macleod Group (ASX: CMG) slumped to its biggest one-day loss in three years, falling 12.3% to close at 50 cents, after the recruitment company said it was facing significantly challenging market conditions, with customers focused on cost reductions, less demand for staffing services in the mining sector, as well as margin reductions, and slippage of one large customer project, which will now occur in the first quarter of next year. Net profit after tax is expected to be in the range of $17-$19 million, before restructuring and acquisition costs.

Lynas Corporation (ASX: LYC) slipped by 8% to close at 63 cents. After a 30% rise since April 15, (before today's fall), investors may have been looking to take some profits. Lynas has commenced production at its rare earths processing plant in Malaysia, and is ramping up to full capacity of 11,000 tonnes per annum. Construction of Phase 2 is also underway, which will see production double to 22,000 tonnes per annum. Lynas has plenty of cash with $172 million available to fund Phase 2.

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