Resources are out. Technology is in.
Speculative traders and high-risk investors have voted with their wallets in favour of technology stocks in 2015, following a plunge in commodity prices…
Data sourced from Yahoo! Finance.
…and three of the biggest gainers in the junior technology space are Senetas Corporation Limited (ASX: SEN), 1-Page Ltd (ASX: 1PG) and Netcomm Wireless Ltd (ASX: NTC).
In 2015 alone, their share prices are up an incredible 162%, 332% and 102%, respectively, according to Google Finance. Meanwhile, the ALL ORDINARIES (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XAO) has fallen 6%.
Senetas builds high-speed encryption devices for physical communications networks built with Ethernet and fibre optic cables. It's already profitable, but the release of more advanced (and more expensive!) devices provide healthy upside for shareholders. With shares recently falling back to 14 cents per share (the price I paid) I think there's reasonable upside in its valuation over the long term.
1-Page is a US-based human resources business which has blue sky potential, according to its investors. I don't know enough about the business to say anything worthwhile, but two important numbers I think speculators should keep in mind are: 1) It boasts a market capitalisation of $346 million; 2) it had cash receipts from customers of only $118,000 in its most recent quarter.
Finally, Netcomm makes wireless devices for the enormous machine-to-machine communications market. It also has exposure to the rollout of the national broadband network (NBN) through a contract with Ericsson to develop fixed wireless devices for rural homes and businesses. I recently sold my shares at slightly more than half ($0.55) their current price ($0.96). However, I'd say that if you were buying Netcomm shares today you'd want to be prepared to hold for the long term because at these levels they seem a little pricey.
