Three S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) stocks did more than their fair share of the heavy lifting in May.
The month just past saw the ASX 200 close up 0.5% at 7,701.7 points.
But these three companies left those gains far behind.
Which companies am I talking about?
Read on.
Three ASX 200 stocks ripping higher in May
The third best performer on the Aussie benchmark index in May was Alumina Ltd (ASX: AWC), a holding company focused on alumina and bauxite production.
Shares in the ASX 200 stock closed out April trading for $1.63 and finished May at $1.91 apiece, up 16.6%.
The Alumina share price has been surging in 2024 amid fast-rising aluminium prices. Up 14% in 2024, the aluminium price gained more than 6% in May to close the month at US$2,703 per tonne.
Of course, the big news in May was the market update on the proposed takeover of Alumina Alcoa Corp (NYSE: AA), announced on 21 May.
The United States-based mining giant is looking to acquire Alumina, offering 0.02854 Alcoa shares for each Alumina share. With the Alcoa share price up 26% in May, investors were taking advantage by piling into Alumina shares.
Moving on to the second ASX 200 stock racing higher in May, which was PEXA Group Ltd (ASX: PXA).
Shares in the digital property exchange and data insights business closed April at $12.26 and finished May trading for $14.63 apiece, up 19.3%.
Much of that came on 2 May, when the ASX 200 stock closed up 11.0% after reporting it was progressing a strategic partnership with United Kingdom based lender, NatWest. Under the deal, NatWest will employ PEXA's digital property exchange technology to deliver 48-hour remortgage transactions to its customers. The platform will also enable NatWest to speed up the handling of sale and purchase transactions.
Commenting on the deal, Joe Pepper, UK CEO of PEXA said, "As one of the UK's major lenders, NatWest shares a common goal of driving digital innovation and transforming the customer experience to address the chronically long time it takes to transact property in the UK market."
Investors also responded positively to PEXA's third-quarter update on 7 May, with shares closing up 1.2% on the day.
Which brings us to the top performing ASX 200 stock in May, Telix Pharmaceuticals Ltd (ASX: TLX).
The Telix Pharmaceuticals share price ended April at $15.05 and closed out May at $18.15, up an impressive 20.6%.
There was a lot going on with the biopharmaceutical company over the month, starting on 3 May. That's when the company announced it had completed the acquisition of QSAM Biosciences, a US-based company developing therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals for primary and metastatic bone cancer.
Shares dropped 4.2% when the company reported its first-quarter results on 17 May.
But investors were quick to pile back into the ASX 200 stock the following trading day when the company reported filing for an initial public offering (IPO) on the Nasdaq.
And Telix shares finished the month with a bang, closing up 15.3% on 31 May after management announced positive results from the company's ProstACT SELECT clinical cancer trial.
Telix's TLX591 drug is being developed to treat adult patients with PSMA-positive metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer.
