The stock market may have taken a beating for most of the week, but it was able to recover losses on Friday, as investors gobbled up shares while weighing the impact of the US-China trade war.
Among all major indices, the tech-heavy Nasdaq registered the highest gain, up 7.29 percent, followed by the S&P 500 with 5.7 percent, and the Dow Jones by 4.95 percent.
Ten companies, predominantly in the gold and biopharmaceutical sectors, were the week’s top performers as investors sought haven from their stocks amid market uncertainties.
In this article, we have identified last week’s 10 highest gainers and detailed the reasons behind their gains.
To come up with the list, we considered only the stocks with a $2 billion market capitalization and $5 million trading volume.
The week-on-week prices were based on the companies’ closing prices on Friday as against on April 4, or a week earlier.
Photo by George Morina on Pexels
10. Newmont Corp. (NYSE:NEM)
Shares of Newmont Corp. surged by 24.4 percent week-on-week, finishing Friday’s trading at $54.97 versus the $44.18 on April 4, as investor funds flocked to gold miners amid the surge in the prices of gold.
During the past trading week, gold prices surged to record highs twice as investors turned to gold for safe haven amid economic uncertainties brought about by the ongoing trade tensions between the United States and China.
NEM also saw five consecutive days of rally last week, with sentiment helped by an investment bank’s rating upgrade in the company’s stock to Buy from Neutral previously, while giving it a higher price target of $60 versus $50 prior. The new price target represented a 9-percent upside from NEM’s closing price on Friday.
NEM is a US-based gold miner that owns various mining sites across the US, Canada, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Australia, Ghana, Argentina, Peru, and Suriname.
9. IonQ Inc. (NYSE:IONQ)
IonQ Inc. saw its share prices jump by 26.16 percent week-on-week at $26.09 versus $20.68 on April 4 after being one of the 15 companies tapped by the Department of Defense to explore the possibility of building a useful quantum computer that can achieve utility-scale operation.
According to the DND, IONQ and its 14 quantum computing peers will work with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to scale their technology toward creating a utility-scale quantum computer.
The companies will provide “comprehensive technical details of their concepts to show that they hold water and could plausibly lead to a transformative, fault-tolerant quantum computer in under 10 years.”
Companies that will successfully complete the first stage will advance in the next year-long phase, during which DARPA will analyze their research and development approach.
A final stage will follow, where the QBI independent verification and validation (IV&V) team will test the firms’ computer hardware.
8. Robinhood Markets Inc. (NASDAQ:HOOD)
Shares of Robinhood Markets surged by 26.6 percent on Friday to finish at $43.68 versus the $34.51 closing price on April 4 as investors snapped up shares in the company amid the volatile market environment.
A volatile trading equates to higher trading activity on the market and thus would benefit HOOD whose revenue streams are closely tied to trading volume.
In recent news, HOOD said it officially made a foray into the betting market platform through integrating the predictions market hub into its application which will allow investors to trade on the outcomes of some of the world’s biggest events.
At launch, the hub will allow customers to trade contracts for what the upper bound of the target fed funds rate will be in May, as well as the upcoming men’s and women’s College Basketball Tournaments.
The prediction markets hub and corresponding contracts will initially be available across the US through KalshiEX LLC, a CFTC-regulated exchange.
7. Sibanye Stillwater Ltd. (NYSE:SBSW)
Sibanye Stillwater rallied by 27.3 percent week-on-week, ending Friday’s trading at $4.38 versus the $3.44 finish on April 4, as the company rose in line with higher gold prices.
As of Friday, spot prices of gold were up by 1.93 percent at $3,237.61 per ounce, a new all-time high and its second time hitting a new record during the week, as investor funds flocked to safer assets such as gold amid the ongoing trade tensions globally.
SBSW is a diversified mining company that mines gold, lithium, nickel, copper, zinc, and platinum group metals. In South Africa, it operates underground mines and surface treatment facilities at Beatrix, Driefontein, and Kloof.
It also holds a controlling stake in DRDGOLD Ltd., which operates surface tailings retreatment facilities on the West Rand through the Far West Gold Recoveries operation, and on the East Rand through its wholly-owned Ergo Mining subsidiary.
6. AngloGold Ashanti PLC (NYSE:AU)
AngloGold grew its share prices by 27.5 percent last week, ending Friday’s trading at $42.79 versus the $33.55 a week earlier, as investors turned to gold assets for safety from the ongoing market uncertainties.
Spot prices of gold were up by 1.93 percent at $3,237.61 per ounce on Friday, a new all-time high and its second time hitting a new record during the week.
AU is a global gold mining company with a diverse, high-quality portfolio of operations, projects, and exploration activities in 11 countries.
Its portfolio includes operations in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Egypt, Ghana, Guinea, and Tanzania, as well as greenfield projects in Colombia, Côte d’Ivoire and the US.
It also conducts greenfield exploration activities in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Tanzania, and the US.
5. IAMGOLD Corporation (NYSE:IAG)
IAMGOLD Corp. surged by 28.2 percent this week to close at $7.22 each on Friday versus the $5.63 last week, as the company continued to benefit from the rally in gold prices.
During a generally pessimistic trading week, IAG defied the market slump, rallying for five consecutive days, as investor funds continued to flock to gold miners to mitigate risks from the escalating trade war between the US and China.
Additionally, investors appeared to have snapped up shares in the company ahead of its first-quarter earnings release on May 6.
IAG is a leading gold producer with assets across Canada and West Africa. The company fully owns the Westwood project in Quebec, holds a 60 percent stake in the Côté Gold project in Ontario, and controls 90 percent of Essakane in Burkina Faso.
For this year, it targets gold production to hit between 735,000 and 820,000 ounces, focusing on maximizing Côté Gold’s potential.
4. Harmony Gold Mining Company Ltd. (NYSE:HMY)
Shares of Harmony Gold increased by 32 percent week-on-week to end Friday’s trading at $17.16 each versus the $13 finish on April 4.
Based on its historical data, HMY’s performance last week defied a generally pessimistic market, having posted gains in all five trading days.
As of Friday, spot prices of gold were up by 1.93 percent at $3,237.61 per ounce, a new all-time high and its second record high during the week, as investor funds flocked to safer assets such as gold amid the ongoing trade tensions globally.
In recent news, Bank of America raised its average gold price targets for this year and the next to $3,063 per ounce this year and $3,350 per ounce in 2026.
The new figures were markedly up from its previous forecasts of $2,750 per ounce for 2025 and $2,625 per ounce for 2026.
The upgraded outlook spilled over into gold mining firms such as HMY.
Earlier this year, the company that its net income in the first semester grew by 33 percent to R7.9 billion from R5.96 billion in the same period a year earlier, as revenues rose by 18 percent to R37.1 billion from R31.4 billion, with gold revenues contributing to total revenue growth, increasing 19 percent to R35.4 million from R29.7 million.
3. Summit Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:SMMT)
Summit Therapeutics Inc. surged by 33.87 percent last week to end Friday’s trading at $23.24 each from the $17.36 the Friday prior as investors cheered two investment firms’ positive ratings for the company.
On Thursday, Cantor Fitzgerald maintained its Overweight rating on SMMT following a move by the company’s co-CEO and chairman Bob Duggan to exercise warrants to acquire 4 million SMMT shares.
The transaction was executed nearly four years before the warrants expired at a strike price of $1.58 apiece.
Meanwhile, Truist Securities also gave the company a Buy rating and a price target of $35, representing a 50.6-percent upside from SMMT’s latest closing price.
SMMT is a biopharmaceutical oncology company focused on the discovery, development, and commercialization of medicinal therapies.
2. Certara Inc. (NASDAQ:CERT)
Certara Inc. grew its share prices by 35.18 percent last week to finish at $12.91 each on Friday versus the $9.55 on April 4 following news that it released a new version of the Simcyp Simulator to support physiologically-based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modeling, which can forecast the behavior of drugs in various body tissues.
According to CERT, the latest version would strengthen its position as a leader in the PBPK modeling in drug development and regulatory decision-making.
In the fourth quarter of 2024, CERT swung to a net income of $6.6 million from a net loss of $12.5 million in the same period a year earlier. Revenues increased by 14 percent to $100.4 million from $88 million year-on-year.
For this year, CERT expects revenues to settle between $415 million and $425 million as well as earnings per share of $0.42 to $0.46 each.
CERT accelerates medicines using proprietary biosimulation software, technology, and services to transform traditional drug discovery and development. Its clients include more than 2,400 biopharmaceutical companies, academic institutions, and regulatory agencies across 70 countries.
1. Recursion Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:RXRX)
Recursion Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company backed by Nvidia Corp., soared by 35.8 percent in just a week’s trading, finishing Friday at $27.72 versus the $4.24 close on April 4 as investor sentiment was buoyed by the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) decision to replace the use of animals in testing drugs with Artificial Intelligence.
RXRX is a clinical-stage biotechnology company that uses AI in its discovery and development processes. It is also one of the companies that received the backing of technology giant Nvidia Corp.
According to the FDA, the initiative was designed to replace animal testing with “more effective human-relevant methods” in the development of monoclonal antibody therapies and other drugs.
The move was not only expected to improve drug safety and expedite the evaluation process, but it could also result in lower research and development costs, thereby reducing drug prices for the end consumers.
According to the FDA, it will begin to encourage the inclusion of New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) data in investigational new drug applications.
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