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Norway, Taiwan and Texas. No obvious ties, except for the fact that they are home to most of the stocks in our StockScouter Top 10 for the second half of 2007.
Don't ask me how this happens. But our StockScouter rating system has killed the stock market since its inception in the summer of 2001, so we just accept a little weirdness from time to time. It's kind of like a crazy uncle who brings great presents.
I'm going to tell you in a moment all about our eclectic new crew of 10 top-rated stocks to help make your fortune in the next six months. But chill a minute and sit through some background.
StockScouter, you may recall from my previous columns on the subject, is a rating system we created here at MSN Money back in the darkest days of the millennial bear market to help us find the stocks most likely to rise over the next six months with the least amount of volatility. Spanked by an ugly market, we wanted a way to find stocks that would jump without making us jumpy.
It worked right away, fortunately, and it has every six months since. From the start of this year through June 29, our latest bunch of six-month picks was up 14%, or more than twice the 6% return of the S&P 500 Index ($INX), as shown below. Leaders were overseas phone-service providers, like Millicom International Cellular (MICC, news, msgs), based in Luxembourg, and Mobile TeleSystems (MBT, news, msgs), based in Russia.
| Company | Scouter rating number | Price on 12/29/06 | Price on 6/29/07 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Millicom International (MICC, news, msgs) | 10 | $61.98 | $91.64 | 48% |
| CT Communications (CTCI, news, msgs) | 10 | $23.48 | $30.51 | 30% |
| Mobile TeleSystems (MBT, news, msgs) | 10 | $50.38 | $60.57 | 20% |
| International Power (IPR, news, msgs) | 10 | $73.00 | $85.19 | 17% |
| Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PHI, news, msgs) | 10 | $49.64 | $57.20 | 15% |
| Enbridge Energy Management (EEQ, news, msgs) | 8 | $48.80 | $55.64 | 14% |
| AGL Resources (ATG, news, msgs) | 9 | $39.23 | $40.48 | 3% |
| Atlantic Tele-Network (ATNI, news, msgs) | 10 | $28.60 | $28.64 | 0% |
| DTE Energy (DTE, news, msgs) | 9 | $48.61 | $48.22 | -1% |
| SureWest Comm (SURW, news, msgs) | 10 | $28.07 | $27.24 | -3% |
| AVERAGE | 14% | |||
| S&P 500 | 1,418.00 | 1,503.00 | 6% |
In the six months before that, our Top 10 was up 11.6%, or about the same as the market's strong 11% move, led by led by flower retailer FTD Group (FTD, news, msgs), up 34%, and parking-lot tycoon Central Parking (CPC, news, msgs), up 20%. And just to back a little further, our Top 10 rose 16% in the second half of 2005, led by retailer Conn's (CONN, news, msgs), up 54%, and oil-field-services provider BJ Services (BJS, news, msgs), up 40%.
More from MSN Money
StockScouter seeks stocks that have strong fundamentals, decent valuations, insider buying and positive price action that are also in sectors, market capitalization and style groups that are expected to be in favor over the ensuing six months. Stocks get a 1 to 10 rating, with 10 being best, and are then sorted by a computer elf who tries to determine which will be the least volatile. We publish the top 10 every day on this page at our site.
- Video: The China challenge
Whew! With all of that out of the way, let's take a look at what's cooking for the next six months. As you can see in the following table, StockScouter favors energy and semiconductors.
| Company | Scouter rating | Price 6/29/07 |
|---|---|---|
10 | $16.63 | |
9 | $38.27 | |
9 | $3.42 | |
9 | $13.66 | |
9 | $35.85 | |
8 | $34.10 | |
8 | $31.11 | |
10 | $51.99 | |
10 | $37.46 | |
10 | $22.25 |
Both groups make a lot of sense right now. Let's look at energy first. The price of crude oil has crested $70 recently, and with the fast-growing Chinese economy putting tremendous demands on resource-providing countries, there's no telling how much higher it could go. Eighty? Sure, why not?
Continued: China's thirst for oil
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