Who said you have to be patient to net a hefty return on an investment? There are 10 ASX small caps that tripled (gained 200 per cent or more) in a day in 2019.

Stockhead recaps the lucky companies and the reason for their show-stopping performance.

10. AssetOwl (ASX: AO1) +225% (April 16)

A fellow micro-cap gave AssetOwl a massive leg up back in April. The Agency Group (ASX:AU1) agreed to trial AssetOwl’s property management platform, inspector360. The name includes 360 because it incorporates 360-degree imagery as well as hot spot mapping and videoing to document property conditions.

But only a week later the company announced a capital raise and lost almost all of the ground it previously gained.

9. Mount Burgess Mining (ASX: MTB) + 233% (September 17)

After reaching as high as $1.19 back in 2004, it’s been a slow and spectacular decline for this former gold miner. But last month it rose 233 per cent despite having no news.

The company’s explanation to the ASX? Investors were only just realising the significance of an announcement from the prior month showing solid metallurgical test-work at a base metals and vanadium project it was exploring.

8. Stavely Minerals (ASX: SVY) +258% (September 26)

A 40 per cent copper hit. Howzat? Shareholders woke to the news Stavely had found exactly that at its Victorian project. The find left even the company’s own chairman stunned. He said many explorers did not see those kinds of grades in their entire careers.

As if that was not good enough, underneath the hit was a 4.4m-long nickel (3.98 per cent and cobalt (0.23 per cent) intersection, 96.7m from the surface.

7. Osteopore (ASX: OSX) +263% (September 23)

What an ASX debut from this company that specialises in 3D body implant printing. The IPO was conducted at 20c and the stock rose to 63c the second the market opened.

While it is currently off all time highs, it currently sits at a still impressive $0.77. However, the top performing IPO in 2019 remains Uniti Group (ASX: UWL).

6. Lotus Minerals (ASX: LOT) +331% (24 June)

With the battery metals market struggling and uranium running hot with major US investment, shareholders of this company (then known as Hylea Metals) loved this move.

It acquired a majority stake in a major uranium project in Malawi from Paladin Energy (ASX: PDN). And it’s not like they were buying a dead duck — this mine had produced 10.9 million tonnes of uranium in its operating life. There had been speculation for much of 2019 that uranium prices could finally recover after spending most of the decade in the doldrums.

Read More:

Uranium stocks guide: Here’s everything you need to know

5. Change Financial (ASX: CCA) +332% (30 September)

Change Financial (ASX: CCA) had been one of the few fin-techs struggling in 2019 due a digital banking app that couldn’t be monetised.

It then pushed for a new platform to process Mastercard payments. Last month shareholders heard the news they’d been waiting for. They had completed the platform and were ready to commence operations on it.

4. Orthocell (ASX: OCC) +377% (8 May)

When it comes to biotechs, there’s nothing like news your drug actually works. And Orthocell’s nerve regeneration therapy was working — patients reported an 83 per cent improvement in muscle power.

Hours later, we spoke with CEO Paul Anderson who said the sky was the limit. The stock has held its ground for the rest of the year, currently sitting at 48 cents.

3. Actinogen Medical (ASX: ACW) +467% (1 October)

Only a day before the Orthocell news, Actinogen crashed 70 per cent after an anti-Alzheimer’s drug failed its trial. But it pushed on with the drug at higher doses and this time it worked. The stock has essentially regained all ground lost after the failed trial.

But the company has expressed hope that it can be a watershed moment for Alzheimer’s treatments considering so many previous treatments had failed.

2. Simavita (ASX: SVA) +480% (25 November)

As we commented when we first reported the news that Monday afternoon,” Who thought nappies could make your stock a six-bagger – in just an hour and a half?”

That happened to shareholders of Simavita (ASX:SVA) on November 25. The catalyst was gaining CE Mark certification for its nappy-tech. Its Smartz technologies detects conditions and incidents in wearers such as urinary incontinence and falls.

As useful as it sounds it had to meet European health, safety and environmental protection standards and that’s what CE certification meant.

1. MetalsTech (ASX:MTC) +500% (20 November)

The fates of gold and lithium could not be further apart. Gold surged, breaking the A$2,000 mark while lithium has struggled due to over supply and realisation large-scale electric vehicle adoption is still a long way off.

Having a lithium project in Canada left MetalsTech exposed to this but in November it announced it was going to buy a gold project in Slovakia. And it was not just any gold project, but one estimated to contain over a million ounces of gold.