Hot Money Monday: These are the most in-demand stocks on the ASX right now

Each Monday, Stockhead recaps which stocks are most heavily in demand by investors — running hot.

The analysis is based on the Relative Strength Index (RSI), a technical gauge which measures how trading momentum is affecting the price action.

A reading of 70 is seen as the level at which a company may have been overbought. If a stock has a reading of 30 or below, it could be undervalued.

Click here for a more detailed rundown of what the RSI does and how it’s used. While there’s usually a pretty good reason if a given stock is running hot (or cold), investors are also on the lookout for opportunities where the price-action has separated from fundamentals.

Here’s this week’s list:

Running Hot

Timber company Big River Industries (ASX:BRI) continued its run at the top of the RSI, with a reading of 84.94 (last week 81.18).

The company hasn’t had any major operational updates in recent months, although it did announce the introduction of a dividend reinvestment plan this week — allowing eligible shareholders to reinvest their dividends into new BRI shares.

Big River’s latest annual report showed it declared a fully-franked annual dividend of 4.4c for the 2019 financial year.

Minerals exploration company EHR Resources (ASX:EHX) has also been running hot in Decembrer.

The catalyst appears to be an acquisition on December 6, when EHR announced plans acquire a 100 per cent interest in Canada-based Nanuk Diamonds in a $1m deal. Pending shareholder approval, EHR said it planned to pay for the asset via the issuance of 20m shares at 5c each.

And online real estate marketplace rent.com.au (ASX:RNT) also moved into the top three of this week’s RSI, as its share price picked up enough momentum in December to warrant a speeding ticket from the ASX.

The company requested a trading halt to respond to the query, and is scheduled to recommence trading on Monday.

Here’s a summary of the stocks that were running hot for the two weeks ended Friday, December 13:

Scroll or swipe to reveal table. Click headings to sort.

Running Cold

While markets have been tracking relatively steadily into the end of the year, the number of small caps with an RSI reading below 30 has continued to climb in recent weeks.

Last week it was 63, and this week the number has climbed to 82.

Among the stocks running cold was buy now, pay later platform Splitit (ASX:SPT), which fell back into more icy waters with an RSI of 25.67.

The company started listed life with a bang when it joined the ASX boards in January and immediately rocketed from 20c to $2.

By September, it had fallen back to 50c before rallying back above $1, but has now been on a steady decline since late October.

Splitit released an update earlier this week highlighting strong Black Friday sales and continued operational momentum, but that failed to stop the recent slide.

Here’s a summary of the stocks that were running hot for the two weeks ended Friday, December 13:

Scroll or swipe to reveal table. Click headings to sort.