With less than three hours of trade left in the week before the closing bell, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is up 2.2% since last Friday's close, with these three rocketing ASX 200 stocks doing a lot of the heavy lifting.
Which fast-rising stocks am I talking about?
Read on!
ASX 200 stocks smashing the benchmark this week
The first company that's smashing the benchmark returns this week is Mesoblast Ltd (ASX: MSB).
Shares in the clinical-stage biotechnology company closed last Friday trading for $2.40. At the time of writing, shares are fetching $2.76 apiece.
That sees this ASX 200 stock up 15.0% for the week. Taking a step back, Mesoblast shares are down 18% in 2025, but they remain up 104% since this time last year.
Close to market close last Friday, Mesoblast reported that its "allogeneic cell therapy products are manufactured from US donors in the US and designated as US origin products not subject to tariffs on imported branded or patented pharmaceutical products".
Today, the stock is receiving a big boost after announcing that its Ryoncil drug had become active for billing and reimbursement from the US Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) as of 1 October, having received a permanent 'permanent J-Code'.
"A permanent J-Code is a critical element for successful commercialisation of rare disease products, ensuring more efficient billing and enabling timely access to Ryoncil for children with life-threatening SR-aGvHD," Mesoblast CEO Silviu Itescu said.
Moving on to the second ASX 200 stock that's racing higher this week, we have Westgold Resources Ltd (ASX: WGX).
Shares in the Western Australian gold miner closed last Friday trading for $4.32, and are currently changing hands for $5.44 each. That puts the Westgold share price up 25.9% for the week. Shares are now up 88% year to date.
Westgold shares have closed in the green every day this week, with a big 10.7% gain posted on Wednesday.
Investors were piling into the ASX 200 stock following the release of its three-year production plan. That came after the management said they have a "high confidence plan" that the next three years will see costs come down and production ramp up.
Management added that the estimates contained in the three-year plan are "conservative by design".
Which brings us to…
Leading the charge
Racing ahead of the pack this week is DroneShield Ltd (ASX: DRO).
DroneShield officially joined the ASX 200 on 22 September amid its swelling market cap. The drone defence company was also among the top performers last week.
The ASX 200 stock closed last week trading for $3.73. At the time of writing, shares are swapping hands for $5.58 apiece. This sees the DroneShield share price up a whopping 49.6% this week.
DroneShield shares are now up 645% year to date. That's enough to turn an $8,000 investment into $59,600. In just nine months!
With hostile drones increasingly deployed in Russia's war with Ukraine, and indeed across the world, the market clearly believes that demand for DroneShield's defence products will continue to grow.
