2020's top 100 stocks have gained another 8pc this year on average; but two stocks rose 300pc+ again

The top 100 ASX stocks in 2020 all made gains of 300% or more but only a couple achieved the feat again this year.

Almost a year ago today, Stockhead recapped the top stocks in 2020 and we thought before we compiled a list of best stocks this year, we’d check in with last years’ winners too.

That list of stocks with the biggest gains in 2020 is only up a modest 8% this year – even lower than the ASX 200 average.

Over a dozen have lost more than 50% and a quartet have not even survived 2021.

But a couple gained over 300% and a further eight gained between 100% and 300%.

Here’s a list of 2020’s top 100 ASX stocks and their gains last year

Code	Company	Price	ReturnYRoll%	Sector	MktCap$
UUL	Ultima United	0.5	3025	Property	$18,328,563
BTR	Brightstar Resources	0.057	2750	Resources	$ 24,837,793.55
LCY	Legacy Iron Ore	0.043	2050	Resources	$ 268,631,256.23
HT8	Harris Technology Gl	0.19	2011	Consumer	$ 48,449,141.39
IOU	Ioupay Limited	0.14	1900	Tech	$ 63,067,489.10
DEG	De Grey Mining	0.99	1880	Resources	$ 1,265,630,910.39
VUL	Vulcan Energy	2.68	1629	Resources	$ 211,542,503.60
CHN	Chalice Mining Ltd	3.72	1591	Resources	$ 1,256,705,826.84
NCL	Netccentric Ltd	0.078	1460	Tech	$ 20,475,000.00
CWL	Consol Financial Hld	0.037	1342	Tech	$ 4,692,628.53
SRN	Surefire Rescs NL	0.027	1250	Resources	$ 26,163,291.44
AUT	Auteco Minerals	0.1	1150	Resources	$ 156,717,893.60
EER	East Energy Resource	0.036	1100	Energy	$ 115,235,533.26
8VI	8Vi Holdings Limited	1.75	1067	Consumer	$ 77,660,528.75
MMM	Marley Spoon	2.72	988	Consumer	$ 696,388,000.00
PM8	Pensana Rare Earths	1.84	951	Resources	$ 235,377,981.44
SKN	Skin Elements Ltd	0.091	913	Consumer	$ 31,113,556.93
TDL	Tbg Diagnostics Ltd	0.27	900	Health	$ 58,748,568.03
3DP	Pointerra Limited	0.53	881	Tech	$ 355,488,549.36
E25	Element 25 Ltd	1.56	872	Resources	$ 206,247,073.57
SI6	SI6 Metals Limited	0.028	833	Resources	$ 36,614,055.32
RAC	Race Oncology Ltd	1.7	819	Health	$ 220,080,087.50
BRN	Brainchip Ltd	0.425	785	Tech	$ 687,051,424.90
GRV	Greenvale Mining Ltd	0.125	716	Energy	$ 42,678,700.50
CAD	Caeneus Minerals	0.008	700	Resources	$ 31,493,286.25
TNT	Tesserent Limited	0.34	673	Tech	$ 339,428,528.00
ESR	Estrella Res Ltd	0.069	667	Resources	$ 62,066,344.63
PDI	Predictive Disc Ltd	0.06	660	Resources	$ 61,021,312.92
KKO	Kinetiko Energy Ltd	0.15	650	Energy	$ 85,174,841.70
SAN	Sagalio Energy Ltd	0.015	650	Energy	$ 3,069,901.95
RHY	Rhythm Biosciences	0.84	638	Health	$ 169,256,481.24
CTE	Cryosite Limited	0.375	608	Health	$ 17,572,336.13
IBX	Imagion Biosys Ltd	0.14	581	Health	$ 139,771,420.32
AVE	Avecho Biotech Ltd	0.027	575	Health	$ 43,170,156.36
KTE	K2 Energy Ltd	0.027	575	Tech	$ 8,117,743.08
WWI	West Wits Mining Ltd	0.06	567	Resources	$ 72,969,277.20
SUV	Suvo Strategic	0.13	550	Resources	$ 47,851,471.85
WOA	Wide Open Agriculture	0.87	544	Consumer	$ 79,522,656.24
SHH	Shree Minerals Ltd	0.019	533	Resources	$ 15,375,500.95
CVV	Caravel Minerals Ltd	0.2	525	Resources	$ 57,475,982.60
ENX	Enegex Limited	0.053	521	Resources	$ 7,493,935.11
HTG	Harvest Tech Grp Ltd	0.32	515	Tech	$ 156,893,037.76
DW8	Digital Wine Venture	0.043	514	Consumer	$ 67,182,426.56
BNL	Blue Star Helium Ltd	0.043	514	Energy	$ 53,021,705.35
IHR	intelliHR Limited	0.49	512	Tech	$ 135,846,272.59
ADN	Andromeda Metals Ltd	0.275	511	Resources	$ 592,000,152.43
WBT	Weebit Nano Ltd	2.46	496	Tech	$ 283,893,274.20
AUR	Auris Minerals Ltd	0.081	479	Resources	$ 38,606,702.52
MSM	MSM Corporation Intl	0.072	454	Tech	$ 60,653,756.59
AGE	Alligator Energy	0.011	450	Energy	$ 25,893,922.56
VR1	Vection Technologies	0.125	443	Tech	$ 120,731,130.88
LRS	Latin Resources Ltd	0.027	440	Resources	$ 32,262,578.40
MAN	Mandrake Res Ltd	0.081	440	Resources	$ 26,505,153.40
ARR	American Rare Earths	0.085	431	Resources	$ 28,036,082.02
OAR	Oakdale Resource Ltd	0.019	428	Resources	$ 30,762,184.56
CNB	Carnaby Resource Ltd	0.385	427	Resources	$ 45,360,945.25
MTC	Metalstech Ltd	0.205	413	Resources	$ 30,046,365.79
EM1	Emerge Gaming Ltd	0.082	413	Tech	$ 66,732,125.29
ADO	Anteotech Ltd	0.105	411	Health	$ 196,342,815.38
CRO	Cirralto Ltd	0.038	407	Tech	$ 64,462,956.34
BET	Betmakers Tech Group	0.7	400	Consumer	$ 421,051,292.20
MHC	Manhattan Corp Ltd	0.025	400	Energy	$ 33,156,967.33
RDN	Raiden Resources Ltd	0.03	400	Resources	$ 25,582,295.43
RLC	Reedy Lagoon Corp.	0.015	400	Resources	$ 7,046,006.76
RBL	Redbubble Limited	5.61	396	Consumer	$ 1,523,019,018.51
TAR	Taruga Minerals	0.053	382	Resources	$ 24,231,679.82
RGL	Riversgold	0.048	380	Resources	$ 18,995,886.77
PTR	Petratherm Ltd	0.185	374	Resources	$ 34,846,376.89
FYI	FYI Resources Ltd	0.245	362	Resources	$ 73,695,017.31
KIN	KIN Min NL	0.16	362	Resources	$ 112,069,547.52
ANX	Anax Metals Ltd	0.046	360	Resources	$ 12,889,495.60
AL8	Alderan Resource Ltd	0.115	360	Resources	$ 34,263,225.58
FHS	Freehill Mining Ltd.	0.064	357	Resources	$ 104,560,452.29
CTM	Centaurus Metals Ltd	0.815	353	Resources	$ 265,573,585.40
ACP	Audalia Res Ltd	0.027	350	Resources	$ 18,687,677.16
DDD	3D Resources Limited	0.0045	350	Resources	$ 16,269,174.41
SBR	Sabre Resources	0.009	350	Resources	$ 15,147,572.84
GWR	GWR Group Ltd	0.395	349	Resources	$ 119,176,426.44
TMZ	Thomson Res Ltd	0.11	346	Resources	$ 34,648,712.34
EMV	Emvision Medical	3.06	343	Health	$ 216,534,351.60
FEX	Fenix Resources Ltd	0.235	343	Resources	$ 101,734,771.20
NME	Nex Metals Explorat	0.057	338	Resources	$ 15,220,346.57
MYQ	Myfiziq Limited	1.2	336	Tech	$ 154,060,753.20
MGT	Magnetite Mines	0.013	335	Resources	$ 37,132,591.08
WCN	White Cliff Min Ltd	0.026	333	Resources	$ 13,445,506.07
SCN	Scorpion Minerals	0.06	329	Resources	$ 13,771,071.54
JPR	Jupiter Energy	0.047	327	Energy	$ 7,208,751.57
ADV	Ardiden Ltd	0.017	325	Resources	$ 36,262,052.03
KMT	Kopore Metals Ltd	0.017	325	Resources	$ 10,929,111.30
ABR	American Pacific	1.46	323	Resources	$ 466,714,577.74
GBZ	GBM Rsources Ltd	0.14	319	Resources	$ 56,371,071.96
MCT	Metalicity Limited	0.018	315	Resources	$ 31,396,383.34
TPW	Temple & Webster Ltd	11.25	312	Consumer	$ 1,355,095,440.00
CY5	Cygnus Gold Limited	0.18	309	Resources	$ 19,452,617.64
FE8	Faster Enterprises	0.049	308	Property	$ 5,433,385.14
AZS	Azure Minerals	0.53	308	Resources	$ 163,285,432.13
ZEO	Zeotech Limited	0.053	308	Resources	$ 74,149,712.75
SVM	Sovereign Metals	0.375	308	Resources	$ 147,839,085.38
ARV	Artemis Resources	0.11	307	Resources	$ 125,044,074.87
DTZ	Dotz Nano Ltd	0.24	307	Tech	$ 90,331,770.72
MGV	Musgrave Minerals	0.36	304	Resources	$ 187,933,222.80

And here’s how the top stocks went in 2021…

Code	Company	Price	%Yr	MktCap
AGE	Alligator Energy	0.054	500	$ 165,622,909.30
PDI	Predictive Disc Ltd	0.25	317	$ 341,283,153.00
CNB	Carnaby Resource Ltd	1.26	227	$ 148,769,002.62
CHN	Chalice Mining Ltd	9.41	162	$ 3,340,300,390.34
GRV	Greenvale Mining Ltd	0.3375	160	$ 133,968,878.78
ADO	Anteotech Ltd	0.265	141	$ 523,121,763.88
8VI	8Vi Holdings Limited	4.06	135	$ 172,068,573.32
RLC	Reedy Lagoon Corp.	0.034	127	$ 18,623,745.82
RAC	Race Oncology Ltd	3.71	115	$ 591,540,141.22
RHY	Rhythm Biosciences	1.64	106	$ 342,670,239.52
MGT	Magnetite Mines	0.027	93	$ 85,070,165.79
NCL	Netccentric Ltd	0.15	92	$ 42,451,749.30
ARR	American Rare Earths	0.165	92	$ 64,410,407.16
DTZ	Dotz Nano Ltd	0.43	79	$ 186,699,422.72
MTC	Metalstech Ltd	0.28	77	$ 46,666,085.20
ANX	Anax Metals Ltd	0.079	72	$ 28,161,297.16
FYI	FYI Resources Ltd	0.355	65	$ 129,882,994.10
CVV	Caravel Minerals Ltd	0.315	62	$ 122,802,755.36
ZEO	Zeotech Limited	0.084	62	$ 127,672,899.48
BRN	Brainchip Ltd	0.71	61	$ 1,202,198,372.24
BNL	Blue Star Helium Ltd	0.059	55	$ 90,324,283.42
ABR	American Pacific	2.35	54	$ 978,035,365.70
SVM	Sovereign Metals	0.56	44	$ 240,162,903.12
ENX	Enegex Limited	0.078	42	$ 11,700,401.54
CTM	Centaurus Metals Ltd	1.12	33	$ 384,976,538.24
KMT	Kopore Metals Ltd	0.024	33	$ 16,365,333.60
SCN	Scorpion Minerals	0.075	29	$ 19,642,964.40
CRO	Cirralto Ltd	0.048	26	$ 140,846,557.30
DW8	DW8 Limited	0.051	24	$ 134,860,396.09
CAD	Caeneus Minerals	0.0105	24	$ 45,996,353.28
CTE	Cryosite Limited	0.45	20	$ 21,964,303.35
VR1	Vection Technologies	0.15	20	$ 165,303,644.10
IOU	Ioupay Limited	0.165	18	$ 90,982,990.73
DEG	De Grey Mining	1.175	17	$ 1,652,547,641.88
WBT	Weebit Nano Ltd	2.96	16	$ 447,316,250.80
BET	Betmakers Tech Group	0.835	16	$ 716,094,274.06
UUL	Ultima Utd Ltd	0.565	13	$ 41,418,751.06
LRS	Latin Resources Ltd	0.03	11	$ 42,683,287.89
FEX	Fenix Resources Ltd	0.26	11	$ 130,575,619.20
CY5	Cygnus Gold Limited	0.185	3	$ 21,535,472.79
EER	East Energy Resource	0.036	0	$ 115,235,533.26
FE8	Faster Enterprises	0.049	0	$ 5,433,385.14
MGV	Musgrave Minerals	0.36	0	$ 193,382,261.64
SUV	Suvo Strategic	0.12	-2	$ 59,026,709.40
TPW	Temple & Webster Ltd	10.85	-2	$ 1,306,914,268.80
CWL	Consol Financial Hld	0.037	-3	$ 4,655,628.53
GBZ	GBM Rsources Ltd	0.11	-8	$ 56,189,023.77
DDD	3D Resources Limited	0.003	-9	$ 11,641,116.28
SAN	Sagalio Energy Ltd	0.013	-13	$ 2,660,581.69
E25	Element 25 Ltd	1.25	-17	$ 190,737,961.25
EMV	Emvision Medical	2.61	-17	$ 201,838,391.37
BTR	Brightstar Resources	0.044	-20	$ 24,061,878.24
WOA	Wide Open Agricultur	0.7025	-22	$ 90,019,595.53
JPR	Jupiter Energy	0.038	-24	$ 5,828,352.33
AHI	Adv Human Imag Ltd	0.91	-26	$ 147,866,165.72
3DP	Pointerra Limited	0.39	-26	$ 264,344,419.56
TAR	Taruga Minerals	0.037	-29	$ 18,946,220.22
AUT	Auteco Minerals	0.071	-29	$ 119,860,704.46
ARV	Artemis Resources	0.081	-30	$ 101,654,809.73
AZS	Azure Minerals	0.37	-31	$ 114,972,216.77
ADV	Ardiden Ltd	0.011	-31	$ 23,851,688.92
NME	Nex Metals Explorat	0.039	-32	$ 10,413,921.34
HT8	Harris Technology Gl	0.115	-32	$ 34,246,480.32
KKO	Kinetiko Energy Ltd	0.1	-33	$ 61,665,070.50
SKN	Skin Elements Ltd	0.062	-33	$ 26,860,090.49
KIN	KIN Min NL	0.105	-34	$ 90,944,064.44
MAN	Mandrake Res Ltd	0.053	-34	$ 25,495,017.71
TMZ	Thomson Res Ltd	0.07	-36	$ 39,331,392.45
RDN	Raiden Resources Ltd	0.019	-37	$ 26,131,218.78
ADN	Andromeda Metals Ltd	0.18	-37	$ 447,070,868.28
AUR	Auris Minerals Ltd	0.051	-37	$ 24,307,923.81
HTG	Harvest Tech Grp Ltd	0.21	-38	$ 114,241,229.55
WCN	White Cliff Min Ltd	0.015	-42	$ 8,897,945.99
AVE	Avecho Biotech Ltd	0.016	-43	$ 29,377,864.42
MHC	Manhattan Corp Ltd	0.0125	-43	$ 19,078,483.66
RBL	Redbubble Limited	3.3	-43	$ 910,536,735.90
WWI	West Wits Mining Ltd	0.032	-44	$ 58,701,838.75
LCY	Legacy Iron Ore	0.024	-49	$ 153,763,828.78
IBX	Imagion Biosys Ltd	0.073	-50	$ 81,834,352.98
MCT	Metalicity Limited	0.009	-50	$ 19,293,943.79
TNT	Tesserent Limited	0.165	-51	$ 206,591,782.49
ACP	Audalia Res Ltd	0.013	-52	$ 8,997,770.48
SHH	Shree Minerals Ltd	0.009	-53	$ 9,569,132.03
OAR	OAR Resources Ltd	0.009	-55	$ 16,691,082.52
SBR	Sabre Resources	0.004	-56	$ 6,911,254.60
IHR	intelliHR Limited	0.2	-57	$ 67,773,309.40
FHS	Freehill Mining Ltd.	0.024	-61	$ 41,738,480.21
SRN	Surefire Rescs NL	0.01	-62	$ 11,043,104.09
GWR	GWR Group Ltd	0.125	-63	$ 37,946,199.50
SI6	SI6 Metals Limited	0.01	-66	$ 14,281,439.85
MMM	Marley Spoon	0.91	-66	$ 258,486,410.00
RGL	Riversgold	0.017	-66	$ 6,868,717.33
EM1	Emerge Gaming Ltd	0.025	-67	$ 28,030,872.00
ESR	Estrella Res Ltd	0.023	-68	$ 27,072,006.02
PTR	Petratherm Ltd	0.044	-68	$ 8,752,383.46
AL8	Alderan Resource Ltd	0.033	-69	$ 14,043,680.64
KTE	K2 Energy Ltd	0	-100	$ 5,712,485.87
MSM	MSM Corporation Intl	0	-100	$ 49,702,383.87
PM8	Pensana PLC	0	-100	$ 201,330,337.76
TDL	Tbg Diagnostics Ltd	0	-100	$ 58,748,568.03

One year on – the two biggest gainers among 2020’s top stocks

Alligator Energy (ASX:AGE) tops the list with another 500% gain in 2021, on top of its 450% pop in 2020. Like its peers in the uranium sector it has followed the gains in the yellowcake spot price.

As with its peers, improving prices mean previously mothballed projects may now be feasible once more.

This company’s key projects are the ‘Samphire’ project in South Australia and ‘Alligator Rivers’ in the Northern Territory.

Predictive Discovery (ASX:PDI) finished 2020 over 600% higher than it began and gained another 317% this year. The gold explorer took off in April 2020 after netting a big hit at its Bankan project in Guinea.

In 2021 it has excited investors with further exploration activity as well as a maiden inferred resource of 72.8Mt at 1.56g/t for 3.65Moz for Bankan at a “discovery cost” of just $4/oz.

Among stocks that gained between 100% and 300%, Chalice (ASX:CHN) was the top success story. It continued to rocket after continued exploration success at Julimar culminating in a resource definition and a spin-off of its other projects.

Non-resources successes included Race Oncology (ASX:RAC) which made further strides with its cancer-fighting drug Bisantrene and Rhythm Biosciences (ASX:RHY) which focuses on colorectal cancer test kits.

Rhythm’s achievements included obtaining European approval, going full steam ahead on recruitment for its long awaited clinical trial and identifying further cancers to target in the future.

Other top 2020 companies recorded far more modest gains than last year. 2020’s top stock was property developer Ultima United (ASX:UUL), which rose 3000% but only gained 13% this year.

De Grey Mining (ASX:DEG), which rose nearly 1900% last year, only gained 17% this year while Vection (ASX:VR1) only gained 20%, much of it made in the past couple of months amidst hype about the metaverse.

Top losers

Unfortunately, other stocks which recorded a substantial gain in 2020 failed to make it back to the top this year.

Two such companies are HR tech company intelliHR (ASX:IHR) and geospatial cloud-based data-as-a-service company, Pointerra (ASX:3DP) which both rose after tech entreprenuer Bevan Slattery invested in them. Their prices gradually retreated in the months that followed.

Other stocks on the list included those that reached the top in 2020 due to changed consumer habits, but then retreated in 2021. This was either because consumers returned to their old ways, or in cases where consumers stuck with them, growth stagnated compared to 2020.

Examples include ecommerce stocks Temple & Webster (ASX:TPW) and Redbubble (ASX:RBL), as well as meal kit delivery company Marley Spoon (ASX:MMM).

Stocks that didn’t survive

While those stocks will at least live to see the start of 2022, four companies that made the top 100 gains in 2020 will not.

While K2 Energy (ASX:KTE) technically survived, it shifted from the ASX to the NSX as the ASX refused to accept it had sufficient operations to be listed.

K2 Energy traditionally specialised in oil and gas but has undertaken little exploration activity in recent times.

However it held a stake in NASDAQ-listed semiconductor company Atomera as well as worldwide rights to MST Technology which is a solar energy application.

Next was Pensana Rare Earths (ASX:PM8) which in 2020 rose off the back of exploration at its project in Angola and saw solid results. But it opted to bite the dust on its ASX listing just three weeks into 2021 and be solely listed on the London Stock Exchange.

eSports company MSM (ASX:MSM) opted to delist towards the back end of the year amidst uncertainty over whether a proposed transaction, which had caused its shares to be suspended, would proceed.

And COVID-19 test kit maker TBG Diagnostics (ASX:TDL) was booted off for failing to pay its listing fees.

It had been suspended since mid-March 2020 when ASX sought answers on how investors found out about its test kits being approved in Europe before the news was announced.

Unfortunately, China blocked it from exporting the kits anyway.