Over the past month, the ALL Ordinaries (Index: ^AORD) (ASX: XAO) has climbed 5.7%, reversing much of this year's falls. The index is still down just 0.4%, but if recent trends continue, we could see 2015 post a positive return.
So much for the doomsayers' predictions of a market crash, the end of the world or whatever.
And while the index has gained more than 5%, a number of companies have done significantly better. Here are 5 of the top performing companies in the past month…
Central Petroleum Limited's (ASX: CTP) share price has rocketed up 190% to 29 cents. In early October, the oil and gas company announced that it was in negotiations with gas purchasers, which could result in firm gas sales of around 12 petajoules (PJ) for 10 years from the 2018/19 financial years, and in excess of $500 million of revenues over the same period. There's still plenty of water to flow under the bridge before the company actually books those revenues, but so far so good.
Coffey International Limited (ASX: COF) saw its share price zoom up 138% to 40.5 cents, after receiving a takeover offer. The geotechnical consulting services company received a 42.5 cents per share takeover offer from NASDAQ-listed Tetra Tech, Inc. Coffey's board unanimously support the takeover bid, which appears to be headed for a successful conclusion.
Reffind Ltd (ASX: RFN) share price has climbed 83% to $1.93, as investors clamour to get into hot tech/disruptive stocks. Reffind allows employees to interact with their company's jobs site through an app, by referring friends for jobs and potentially being rewarded. Employees are encouraged to interact by receiving a referral fee if their candidate is successful, and also going into weekly prize draws. My colleague Owen Raskiewicz covered Reffind in more detail here.
Brainchip Holdings Ltd (ASX: BRN) share price has gained 77.3% to 39 cents – again as investors look to disruptive tech businesses. Brainchip has developed a technology that it says has the ability to learn autonomously, evolve and associate information just like the human brain. With thousands of potential commercial uses including smartphones, driverless cars, drones and forecasting, is this the beginning of Skynet?
Avita Medical Ltd (ASX: AVH) has seen its share price gain 71.9% to 11 cents. The company specialises in regenerative medicine for the treatment of wounds and skin defects. In late September, Avita was awarded a US Government contract valued at up to US$53.9 million over five years. That includes US$16.9 million to support Avita's FDA approval trial for the treatment of thermal burn injuries and to purchase 5,000 plus ReCell devices.
Foolish takeaway
There's no guarantee these five will continue to surge higher over the next month. Four of the five companies (not Coffey) above might be classified as speculative investments and could be wildly successful or very disappointing. But investors might want to keep a close eye on those four.
