Despite a 1.9% selloff on Wednesday, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) recorded a small gain last week. The benchmark index rose 16.1 points or 0.2% over the five days to end at 7,030.3 points.
While a number of shares climbed higher with the market, some recorded particularly strong gains. Here's why these were the best performers on the ASX 200 last week:
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Appen Ltd (ASX: APX)
The Appen share price was the best performer on the ASX 200 last week with a 19.4% gain. Investors were buying the technology company's shares after it announced a new organisational structure. The new structure is aligned to its product-led and customer-centric strategy. Management notes that the changes reflect Appen's evolution from being the leading provider of artificial intelligence (AI) data annotation services to the provider of a broad range of AI data annotation products and solutions that unlock growth in new markets. In addition, management reaffirmed its EBITDA guidance of US$83 million to US$90 million in FY 2021. This represents constant currency growth of 18% to 28% year on year.
Xero Limited (ASX: XRO)
The Xero share price was on form and recorded an impressive 13.1% gain over the five days. This appears to have been driven by bargain hunters snapping up shares after a recent pullback. In addition to this, improving sentiment in the tech sector also gave the cloud accounting platform provider's shares a boost. For the same reason, the Altium Limited (ASX: ALU) share price jumped 11.5% last week.
Corporate Travel Management Ltd (ASX: CTD)
The Corporate Travel Management share price wasn't far behind with a gain of 11.9%. Last week analysts at Morgan Stanley retained their overweight rating and $21.50 price target on this corporate travel specialist's shares. The broker doesn't believe the company will be meaningfully impacted by Qantas Airways Limited (ASX: QAN) reducing travel agent commissions on international flights from 5% to 1%.
Gold Road Resources Ltd (ASX: GOR)
The Gold Road Resources share price was a positive performer and stormed 9.8% higher over the period. This appears to have been driven by a rise in the gold price last week. The spot gold price touched on a four-month high thanks to easing bond yields. This led to the S&P/ASX All Ords Gold index rising by a solid 4.1% last week.
