What goes up…seems to keep going up.
That's certainly the case with the S&P/ASX 200 (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) today. The index gained 0.6% to hit 5,811.0 – its eleventh consecutive day of gains.
Late last year, investment bank UBS predicted the index would reach 5,700 by the end of December 2015. Well, it's well and truly monstered that target, gaining 9.5% in those 11 days and 6,000 is not that far away.
But it also doesn't mean that every stock is posting a positive gain. Here's our view on a few of the notable stocks that were sold off by investors…
Orocobre Limited (ASX: ORE) dropped 13.3% to $2.54, after coming out of a trading halt. Orocobre is developing its Olaroz lithium project in Argentina and is raising around $55 million from investors at $2.55 per share. Olaroz was officially opened in December 2014 and is expected to be the world's lowest cost producer once it reaches nameplate designed capacity. Lithium is in big demand for its use in batteries, particularly for the renewable energy sector.
Oil and gas producers Sundance Energy Limited (ASX: SEA), Senex Energy Limited (ASX: SXY), Santos Ltd (ASX: STO) and Beach Energy Ltd (ASX: BPT) fell 4.6%, 4%, 3.2% and 3% respectively, as benchmark crude oil prices were hammered overnight.
As you can see from the chart below, Brent Oil has been hammered in the past six months and dropped another 6.1% overnight to hit US$54.38 per barrel. At these levels, even small moves in the oil price are having a magnified effect on oil and gas stocks, both up and down.
Source: Nasdaq.com
Construction and engineering provider RCR Tomlinson Limited (ASX: RCR) crumbled 6.7% to $1.96 today, despite no recent news from the company. Shares in RCR have been sold off, despite the company announcing a share buyback of up to 2 million shares on market in early December 2014. In 2014, RCR reported a 22% increase in net profit and is currently trading on a trailing P/E of just 6.8 times. Clearly some investors think the company is headed for a fall and are jumping ship beforehand.
