It certainly was an incredible month for the S&P/ASX 200 (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO). During July the benchmark index climbed an incredible 6.3%, which brought its year-to-date return to a solid 5%.
Amongst the many shares climbing higher during July, three tech shares in particular stood out for me. Here's why they went gangbusters last month:
Afterpay Holdings Ltd (ASX: AFY)
Afterpay provides retail merchants and their customers with a buy now, pay later service online. It earns a small percentage of the sale in return for bearing its default risk. In July its share price rocketed higher by 62% thanks largely to a business update released early in the month revealing that the tech company had grown the number of its retail merchant clients by 140% to 300 in just three months.
Furthermore, the company advised that it has been running an in-store point of sale pilot with retailers Cue Clothing and Veronika Maine. Management has indicated that the early results are very encouraging and it has plans to now extend it to additional retailers.
Audio Pixels Holdings Ltd (ASX: AKP)
Shares of this Israel-based digital speaker developer soared 53% in July after it announced that it has started to make plans for the mass production of its first generation high performance MEMS-based loudspeaker chip.
The company believes it has developed a silicon chip loudspeaker which will "introduce an entirely new generation of ground-breaking device applications that exceed the sound performance specifications and design demands of the world's consumer electronics, industrial and medical device manufacturers."
I believe this one is a little too speculative for an investment at this point in time, but definitely worth keeping a close eye on.
Catapult Group International Ltd (ASX: CAT)
Catapult provides both the software and hardware used by athletes and sports teams across the world to track performance and monitor injury risks. Its shareholders saw the value of their holdings rise by over 23% in July due to a combination of a number of broker upgrades and the acquisitions of US-based XOS Technologies and Ireland's PLAYERTEK.
XOS Technologies provides digital and video analytic software solutions to sports teams and appears to be a great acquisition in my opinion. Management expects it will not only strengthen its strategic positioning and generate significant synergies, but it will also improve its product offering. With competition growing in the industry these acquisitions could give Catapult the edge over competitors such as STATSports.
