Over the past year falls in the share prices of the big four banks, the supermarkets and the big miners have seen the S&P/ASX 20 index crash down more than 10%.
What might be astonishing to readers is that over the same period, the S&P/ASX MidCap50 (Index: ^AXMD) (ASX: XMD) has soared 14%. This index represents the bottom 50 stocks in the S&P/ASX 100, with market caps ranging from $1.4 billion to $12.4 billion.
Here's my top 10 picks out of those 50 stocks…
| Company | Market Cap | Last Price | 12 Month move |
| ResMed Inc. (CHESS) (ASX: RMD) | 11,869.9 | 8.83 | 16% |
| TPG Telecom Ltd (ASX: TPM) | 10,062.9 | 12.28 | 33% |
| REA Group Limited (ASX: REA) | 8,099.1 | 64.58 | 49% |
| Cochlear Limited (ASX: COH) | 6,954.1 | 128.94 | 44% |
| Vocus Communications Limited (ASX: VOC) | 4,474.2 | 8.58 | 45% |
| Challenger Ltd (ASX: CGF) | 4,100.0 | 9.10 | 28% |
| Magellan Financial Group Ltd (ASX: MFG) | 3,370.6 | 22.24 | 19% |
| Flight Centre Travel Group Ltd (ASX: FLT) | 3,091.5 | 32.51 | -9% |
| Carsales.Com Ltd (ASX: CAR) | 2,961.0 | 12.45 | 17% |
| Sirtex Medical Limited (ASX: SRX) | 1,458.2 | 31.20 | -1% |
Source: S&P Global Market intelligence
Interestingly, many of those companies also appeared on my top 10 superstar blue chip companies on the ASX, thanks to their high returns on equity and strong earnings per share growth over both 5 and 10 years.
The strong performance of the mid-cap index also suggests many of those companies – including some of those stocks above – could grow into Australia's top 50 largest companies over the next few years.
The results also show that strong companies generate high returns and high growth – and in most cases, shareholders are rewarded with higher share prices and capital gains.
Foolish takeaway
Investors could do worse than to dig deeper into the 10 companies above. Not all are cheap at current prices, but any pullback could be an opportunity to jump in.
