Afterpay just joined the top 20 ASX stocks; how many others were once small caps?

Afterpay (ASX:APT) was already an ASX 200 stock but yesterday reached another milestone in entering the top 20.

The ASX’s latest rebalance of its indices, which takes effect on December 21, also sees APT’s peer Xero (ASX:XRO) join the top 50.

The move comes just under five years after it listed on the ASX at $1 per share. It now sits at $109 with a market capitalisation over $30 billion.

Additionally it has only been nine months since the stock briefly fell below $10 at the peak of the market panic.

The company has seen substantially increased activity in 2020 but is yet to record a profit.

In a sign of the disruption COVID-19 has caused to various industries, Afterpay is dislodging Insurance Australia (ASX:IAG) from the top 20.

Also on December 21, a number of well-performing small caps will be joining the ASX All Technology Index. Successful entrants include Tesserent (ASX:TNT), Marley Spoon (ASX:MMM), 4D Medical (ASX:4DX) and Pointerra (ASX:3DP)

Afterpay (ASX:APT) and Xero (ASX:XRO) share price chart

Which other ASX 200 were minnows not too long ago?

The majority of ASX 200 stocks have been giants for several years, including the big banks and miners, but a handful of companies were small caps only a few years ago.

The most obvious are the other three members of the so-called WAAAX stocks – WiseTech (ASX:WTC), Altium (ASX:ALU) and Appen (ASX:APX). Afterpay’s peer Zip Co (ASX:Z1P) has also made it to the ASX 200.

In the consumer discretionary category you’ll find New Zealand based dairy stock A2 Milk (ASX:A2M). Five years ago it was trading at 54c but is now over $18 — a gain of over 3000 per cent.

Then there’s lottery software stock Jumbo Interactive (ASX:JIN) which became a multibagger in a couple of years as its sales took off.

In the health sector, three former small caps have gone big:

• Skin treatment stock Avita Medical (ASX:AVH) since it began selling its product in the American market in late 2018
• Disinfectant stock Nanosonics (ASX:NAN), and
• Biotech stock Clinuvel (ASX:CUV) which is up 700 per cent in five years having pursued selling its drug in the US, and winning approval last year to begin sales.

In the resources sector there are also three relatively new members of the index – all in gold and having graduated from explorer to producer status.

These companies are Ramelius Resources (ASX:RMS), Gold Road (ASX:GOR) and Perseus Mining (ASX:PRU).