The S&P/ASX 200 (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) extended its losses for the week as it dropped once again. This time by around 0.8% to 5278 points.
Declines were seen across nearly all sectors, with the financials the worst performers with a drop of around 1.2%. Despite this, some shares managed to carve out gains against all odds. These four shares had a brighter day than most:
Audio Pixels Holdings Ltd (ASX: AKP) climbed by 11% to $21.50 today despite no notable news being released to the market. The share price of the digital speakers developer has climbed an astonishing 53% in the last five days following the release of its annual general meeting presentation. It would appear this and recent successful tests on its speaker chips have caught the eye of investors.
Audio Pixels' share price is up by 150% so far in 2016.
ALS Ltd (ASX: ALQ) shares have skyrocketed by 27% to $5.15 following news that the laboratory testing services company has rejected a $2.7 billion takeover bid from private equity firms Advent International and Bain Capital. Management believes the bid undervalues the company, appearing to hint that the bid is opportunistic and taking advantage of a cyclical low point for the company's minerals business. We will have to wait and see whether Advent International and Bain Capital come back with an improved bid – it would appear the market hopes this to be the case.
ALS shares are still down by around 16% in the last 12 months despite today's gains.
Sino Gas & Energy Holdings Limited (ASX: SEH) jumped 4% to 12.5 cents on the back of news of additional gas sales agreements with large Chinese gas distribution company Huashang. The agreement means the supply of up to 10.5 million standard cubic feet of gas per day and is valued at around $9.65 per thousand cubic foot. Management says that the initial term of the supply agreement is for two years, but can be extended by mutual agreement.
Sino Gas shareholders are having a great year. Its share price has now climbed around 60% in 2016.
XERO FPO NZX (ASX: XRO) shares finished the day up by almost 3.5% to $17.52 despite no news being released to market. The New Zealand-based cloud accounting software provider has been riding high on the back of an outstanding FY 2016. The results were so impressive that it doesn't surprise me to see the shares climb higher when the overall market is having a downer. There's a lot of growth ahead for this fledgling company and I believe it is well worth having on your watch list if it isn't there already.
Xero's share price has now risen by over 27% in the last three months.
