Hot Stocks You're Buying Now

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Welcome back to another Foolish review of the hottest stocks as ranked by Motley Fool CAPS. We're looking at the three best-performing industries over the past 30 days and your favorite long and short candidates in each.

Residential construction firms were feeling the heat last time. No longer. Their 30.4% average return was only good enough for second place.

Dry bulk shippers such as TBS International (Nasdaq: TBSI) have docked in first, up 34.2% as a group over the past 30 days. And in third? Greek stocks. Hellenic heroes, such as DryShips (Nasdaq: DRYS) (also listed in “dry bulk shippers”), have, as a group, returned 22.2% since mid-January.

According to you, our Foolish readers, the best stocks in these industries to own now -- i.e., those with four or five of the maximum five stars in CAPS -- are:

Company	CAPS Stars	No. of CAPS Ratings	Bull Ratio	30-Day Price Change
Aegean Marine Petroleum (NYSE: ANW)	*****	344	98.2%	39.8%
National Bank of Greece (NYSE: NBG)	*****	322	97.8%	(7.6%)
Navios Maritime Holdings (NYSE: NM)	****	613	97.7%	30.8%

Sources: Motley Fool CAPS, Yahoo! Finance.

And your favorite short candidates -- i.e., those rated with one or two stars in CAPS -- are:

Company	CAPS Stars	No. of CAPS Ratings	Bear Ratio	30-Day Price Change
DryShips	**	1658	28.4%	48.4%
WCI Communities	*	478	77.6%	57.7%
Beazer Homes	*	867	75.8%	31.3%
Brookfield Homes	*	274	75.9%	34.8%
Centex (NYSE: CTX)	*	692	73.4%	7.24%

Sources: Motley Fool CAPS, Yahoo! Finance.

I'll admit to being sorely tempted to re-up on Aegean Marine Petroleum, which sports a very cheap 0.58 PEG ratio for 2008. If only its returns on capital weren't dropping like a two-ton anchor in the Mediterranean.

A better choice, I think, is the National Bank of Greece (NBG), for all the reasons that CAPS All-Star GotGlobal outlined a year ago last month. Quoting:

"The Greeks are strategically taking over southeastern European financial sectors with their long-term mindset on the growth of the Euro. They already have control of multiple neighboring banks even Turkey's Finansbank. They have made impressive business moves over the past 2 years."

And today, with the stock trading at about $11 a share? It's still a buy for most CAPS investors, for me, and for my Foolish colleagues at Motley Fool Income Investor. The shares are just too cheap once you factor in growth. NBG sports a microscopic 0.3 PEG for 2008, versus 0.5 and 1.0, respectively, for foreign banking peers UBS (NYSE: UBS) and Barclays.

But that's my take. What's yours? Would you buy National Bank of Greece at today's prices? Let us know what you think by signing up for CAPS today. It's 100% free to participate.

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