The All Ordinaries (Index: ^AXAO) (ASX: XAO) has had a bit of a mixed year and today's decline means its year-to-date gain has been restricted to just 2.9%.
Three shares that have not only outperformed the index, but more than doubled in value in 2018 are listed below. Here's why they have been on fire this year:
The Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (ASX: APT) share price has rocketed 138% since the turn of the year. A good portion of this gain came in recent weeks after the payment solutions company released a trading update. As well as revealing that 10% of online purchases in Australia now go through its platform, the update showed that the company's expansion into the United States has started well. Considering the size of the U.S. market, I'm not at all surprised to see investors getting excited over the update. Despite this strong share price gain I would still class Afterpay Touch as a buy, but it certainly would be high up on the risk scale due to the enormous amount of future growth that has been priced in.
The Australian Vanadium Ltd (ASX: AVL) share price has surged over 200% higher since the start of the year. This has been driven by a sharp rise in the vanadium price and bullish forecasts for demand in the future. Vanadium is a metal that is mostly used in alloys to strengthen steel at present. While demand for its use in this market is expected to rise thanks to China tightening standards on the strength of rebar, investors are most excited about its use in vanadium redox flow batteries. These massive batteries are regarded as a more efficient option for storing large amounts of wind and solar energy than stacks of lithium-ion batteries. I think it will be one to watch if vanadium redox flow batteries take off.
The Nearmap Ltd (ASX: NEA) share price has risen 112% in 2018. Investors have been fighting to get hold of the geospatial map technology company's shares after its U.S. operations started to deliver on their enormous potential. In addition to this, last month the company released its preliminary full-year results and revealed record portfolio growth for the 12 months ended June 30. Annualised contract value exceeded the company's guidance and reached $66.2 million, up 41% on the prior year. While it shares starting to look expensive now, if its U.S. business continues on its growth trajectory then it could prove to be a great long-term investment.
