A broad market selloff on Friday led to the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) giving back almost all of its week to date gains. This meant the benchmark index ended the period with just a 0.1% gain to 5245.9 points.
A number of shares didn't let that hold them back. Here's why these were the best performing ASX 200 shares last week;
The Corporate Travel Management Ltd (ASX: CTD) share price was the best performer on the index with a 38.4% gain. Although there was no news out of the corporate travel specialist last week, a large number of travel and tourism shares stormed higher. This may be due to the progress made towards the easing of lockdowns globally. In addition to this, Australia's success at flattening the coronavirus curve has sparked hopes that domestic tourism will resume in the coming months.
The AP Eagers Ltd (ASX: APE) share price was on form last week and recorded a gain of 31.7%. Investors were buying the auto retailer's shares after a particularly severe selloff during March. In fact, even after taking into account this strong gain, AP Eagers' shares have still lost two-thirds of their value since peaking at $14.49. Investors appear concerned that the company's performance could be negatively impacted by higher unemployment levels because of the coronavirus pandemic. Though, last month management revealed that it was trying to cut costs materially to preserve cash and optimise liquidity. This includes negotiating rent reductions from its landlords.
The oOh!Media Ltd (ASX: OML) share price wasn't far behind with a 28.6% gain. The catalyst for this was speculation that the media and outdoor advertising company could be a takeover target of rival HT&E Ltd (ASX: HT1). This speculation was fuelled by an announcement that revealed that HT&E has snapped up 11 million shares in oOh!Media. HT&E now holds a 4.2% equity interest in the company. oOh!Media labelled the purchase as opportunistic.
The Nearmap Ltd (ASX: NEA) share price was back on form and surged 24.9% last week. The driver for this may have been a broker note out of Morgan Stanley on April 23. It retained its overweight rating on the aerial imagery technology and location data company's shares and put a $2.00 price target on them. The broker appears pleased that its cash flow breakeven target means there is no immediate plan for a capital raising.
