Although one week is a very short time for long-term Foolish investors, a quick jump in share price can sometimes be a sign that something is changing, or the market's perception of a stock has adjusted. While the S&P ASX 100 Index (ASX: ^XTO) rose only 1.4% over the past week, there were three stocks in the index climbing over 5% that I want to highlight. All three are coming up from recent lows and deserve investors' attention.
— Flight Centre Travel Group Ltd (ASX: FLT)
The flight and holiday booking travel agency closed last Friday at $47.10, up 5.9% for that week. It is expanding widely overseas and just created a new business in partnership with a Vietnam-based holiday tour company, giving the company access to a new revenue stream, according to its managing director Graham Turner. The stock offers a 3.1% dividend yield and the price/earnings ratio is 17.
— Carsales.com Ltd (ASX: CRZ)
The operator of the market-leading auto sales website surprised the market by announcing it agreed to acquire 50.1% of vehicle finance and insurance broker Stratton Finance Pty Ltd on 1 July. The company is one of the highest traffic generating vehicle finance websites with over a million visits per year. The acquisition will tie in these services with Carsales.com's current wide variety of vehicle related services.
It finished 6.2% up over the past week to $11.34. Within the past year Carsales.com has made a number of investments in leading overseas auto sales websites. It is definitely on a growth path and should be a part of your portfolio.
— WorleyParsons Limited (ASX: WOR)
The engineering and professional services company for the resources and energy sectors has been on a downtrend since March 2011 due to the mining pullback. Over the last week it rose about 9.8% to $18.93. It has a 4.4% yield unfranked. Mining is still tapering, but since May the company has won four work contracts with LNG projects both in Australia and overseas.
This energy related work is helping to offset the reduction of mining contracts and now the market might start taking more notice of it. The turnaround may not be complete, but investors may be able to take positions while the industry is still weak and reap the benefits later as more work comes in.
