10 Stocks Shaking the Market

Some stocks are one-hit wonders, making a big splash when they first appear, then quickly fizzling into obscurity. But for other stocks, that initial big move is only a preview of bigger and better things.

Today, we've compiled a list of 10 stocks that made some of the biggest moves up over the past month. We'll then pair that list with the ratings issued by our Motley Fool CAPS community. The higher a stock's rating, the greater CAPS members' faith in its ability to keep on beating the market.

30-day % change from Sept. 4 to Oct. 6.

As the markets whipsaw with changes in consumer sentiment, there will be weeks like this one when we see gains that are way ahead of the movers and shakers of previous weeks. Let's see why some CAPS members think a couple of these companies might continue to outperform the market.

A mighty temblor
Doing business in unstable countries is no easy task, and when the opposition takes power, all bets are off. Such seems to be the case when oil and gas exploration company Hyperdynamics sought to develop potentially rich areas off the coast of Guinea. In 2006, Hyperdynamics signed an agreement with the government for rights to an 80,000-square-kilometer region, but a military junta seized control of the country after the death of its president in December.

Hyperdynamics was apparently forced back to the negotiating table to defend its contract despite the junta having said it would honor all agreements. Perhaps the resulting memorandum of understanding was the best that could be hoped for. Although the company will have to give up control of 64% of the previously agreed-to area (about 51,000 square kilometers), it gets to choose which portion it returns, and if development occurs in the seized area, it has the right of first refusal. Because it has to make the choice by the end of the year, Hyperdynamics hired a Norwegian seismic company to map the area to determine which parts are best for further exploration.

CAPS member Displacement views the developments as "great news," while Newton98 believes all the "pieces of the puzzle are finally falling in line." No doubt there remains a lot of risk in an investment here, particularly if Hyperdynamics strikes a large deposit and the new government decides it wants more, but there is also less uncertainty than before, so the potential for gains has grown.

Feeling the aftershocks
Investors in DepoMed are quite familiar with the roller-coaster rides the company goes on. The stock traded as high as $5 a share back in 2007, only to crash to below $2 a stub after the results for gabapentin, an antiseizure drug, showed that it didn't ease the pain of shingles any better than a placebo. The share price then jumped to $4 when the company's menopause therapy was found to cut the frequency of hot flashes in women, only to stumble again in August, when shares hit $1.24.

So it's hardly surprising news that DepoMed is on the rise again. Its experimental neuropathic pain drug met the main goal of a late-stage trial, and DepoMed expects to submit a marketing application to the Food and Drug Administration by the end of the first quarter next year. The stock is trading above $5 a share again, and CAPS member glenvar writes that the prospects for approval could be a catalyst for growth.

Shake, rattle, and roll
With these stocks shaking the market this past month, it pays to start your own research on them at Motley Fool CAPS. Read a company's financial reports, scrutinize key data and charts, and examine the comments your fellow investors have made -- all from a stock's CAPS page.