ASX Top 10 Momentum Stocks — Saturday 22 August 2026

Christopher Hall
1 day ago
15 min read

Written by Christopher Hall, AdvDipFP | Authorised Representative, AFSL 526688 | August 2026

Gold leads the Finer Market Points ASX Top 10 momentum list for the week ending Saturday 22 August 2026, filling four of the ten places. AVITA Medical (ASX: AVH) takes rank #1 with a quarterly gain of +122.40%, and DXN Limited (ASX: DXN) returns at rank #2 after four weeks away carrying a quarterly gain of +1,185.71% — the largest on the list by a factor of more than five. The list shows heavy rotation rather than persistence: seven of the ten companies are appearing in the Top 10 for the first time in the twelve weekly readings recorded since 30 May 2026. These are the best performing ASX shares of the past quarter, ranked by quarterly price momentum.

Which ASX Stocks Led the Momentum List for the Week Ending 22 August 2026?

Rank	Company	ASX Code	Quarterly Gain	Weekly Gain	Days on List	Launch Pad Entry	Gain Since Launch Pad	Thematic
1	AVITA Medical	AVH	+122.40%	+25.79%	36	39 sessions	+141.74%	Regenerative medicine (commercial)
2	DXN Limited	DXN	+1,185.71%	+25.58%	45+	13 sessions	+63.64%	Modular data centres / AI infrastructure
3	Australis Oil & Gas	ATS	+87.50%	+25.00%	31	35 sessions	+42.86%	US shale oil
4	Hamelin Gold	HMG	+100.00%	+35.14%	24	44 sessions	+117.39%	Gold exploration
5	King River Resources	KRR	+223.08%	+1.20%	45+	45+ sessions	+121.05%	Gold exploration
6	Ausgold	AUC	+77.30%	+35.05%	7	32 sessions	+69.01%	Gold development
7	Sierra Nevada Gold	SNX	+69.01%	+23.71%	45+	21 sessions	+60.00%	Copper-gold exploration
8	Kalina Power	KPO	+78.57%	+19.05%	27	45+ sessions	+92.31%	Power generation for data centres
9	Midas Minerals	MM1	+41.36%	+22.73%	8	13 sessions	+45.95%	Copper-silver exploration
10	Falcon Metals	FAL	+31.43%	+15.97%	10	21 sessions	+53.33%	Gold exploration

Data note — read this before the figures. This week's dataset was captured on Friday 21 August 2026 before the market closed. The prices behind every percentage in the table are therefore intraday, not closing prices, and they will differ from Friday's close. The ranking, the thematic composition and the day counters are unaffected by that timing; the individual percentages should be read as accurate to the moment of capture rather than to any settled session.

Two counters appear in the table and they measure different things. Days on List counts trading sessions on the FMP Top 30 momentum list. Launch Pad Entry counts trading sessions since the company entered the FMP Launch Pad, a separate daily ranking with its own observation window. Both are censored at 45 sessions, so `45+` means 45 or more. A short Launch Pad figure alongside a long momentum tenure is not a contradiction — the two are read from different sources and are never reconciled against each other.

Which Companies Held Their Places From Last Week?

AVITA Medical (ASX: AVH) held rank #1 on the Finer Market Points ASX Top 10 momentum list for the week ending 22 August 2026 with a quarterly gain of +122.40%, up from +89.17% and rank #2 a week earlier — its second consecutive appearance and its first at the top of the list.

King River Resources (ASX: KRR) held rank #5 for the week ending 22 August 2026 with a quarterly gain of +223.08%, the second-largest on the list, having led the list at rank #1 a week earlier on +316.67%. Its weekly gain of +1.20% was the smallest of the ten, which makes King River the clearest case on this week's board of a company held in position by its quarterly base rather than by the current week's trading. Finer Market Points has published a dedicated King River Resources ASX gold momentum analysis covering the company's Kimberley and Murchison gold ground.

Which Companies Are New to the List This Week?

Seven companies entered the Top 10 for the first time in the recorded window, and one returned:

Hamelin Gold (ASX: HMG) entered at rank #4 for the week ending 22 August 2026 with a quarterly gain of +100.00% and a weekly gain of +35.14%, the largest weekly move on the list.
Ausgold (ASX: AUC) entered at rank #6 for the week ending 22 August 2026 with a quarterly gain of +77.30% after just 7 sessions on the momentum list, the shortest tenure of the ten.
Australis Oil & Gas (ASX: ATS) entered at rank #3 for the week ending 22 August 2026 with a quarterly gain of +87.50%.
Kalina Power (ASX: KPO) entered at rank #8 for the week ending 22 August 2026 with a quarterly gain of +78.57% and a return since Launch Pad entry of +92.31%.
Sierra Nevada Gold (ASX: SNX) entered at rank #7 for the week ending 22 August 2026 with a quarterly gain of +69.01%.
Midas Minerals (ASX: MM1) entered at rank #9 for the week ending 22 August 2026 with a quarterly gain of +41.36% after 8 sessions on the momentum list.
Falcon Metals (ASX: FAL) entered at rank #10 for the week ending 22 August 2026 with a quarterly gain of +31.43%, the smallest on the list.
DXN Limited (ASX: DXN) returned at rank #2 for the week ending 22 August 2026 with a quarterly gain of +1,185.71% — its seventh Top 10 appearance and its first since 18 July 2026.

Which ASX Shares Performed Best This Quarter?

Measured on quarterly price performance to the data capture of Friday 21 August 2026, the three best performing shares on the Finer Market Points list were DXN Limited (ASX: DXN) at +1,185.71%, King River Resources (ASX: KRR) at +223.08% and AVITA Medical (ASX: AVH) at +122.40%. Every company in the table above gained ground over the quarter, with the smallest advance — Falcon Metals (ASX: FAL) at +31.43% — still exceeding thirty per cent.

Ranking by quarterly performance is a deliberate choice rather than a default. A weekly ranking rewards a single news day; a twelve-month ranking rewards companies whose move is largely behind them. The quarter is long enough for a genuine trend to establish and short enough that the trend is still running at the time of measurement. That is why this list reads as the best performing ASX shares of the past quarter rather than of the past week — and why a company such as King River, up +223.08% over the quarter but only +1.20% over the week, holds a place that a weekly screen would have removed.

Which Themes Are Driving ASX Momentum This Week?

Five distinct themes are represented on the list for the week ending 22 August 2026. Gold is the largest by company count for the first time since the scandium cluster of 15 August 2026.

Gold Exploration and Development — Four of Ten Places

Hamelin Gold (ASX: HMG), King River Resources (ASX: KRR), Ausgold (ASX: AUC) and Falcon Metals (ASX: FAL) occupy ranks #4, #5, #6 and #10 for the week ending 22 August 2026, giving gold four of the ten places. Their combined presence across the quarterly and weekly columns — Hamelin at +35.14% for the week, Ausgold at +35.05% — indicates that the theme is being driven by current-week buying rather than by the residue of older moves. The catalysts differ in kind: Hamelin and Falcon are drill-result stories, King River is an exploration programme awaiting assays, and Ausgold is a corporate event. Gold exploration is typically sustained by a sequence of assay releases against a supportive metal price, and by corporate activity when a developer reaches a stage where a producer will pay for it. For a deeper look at gold exploration momentum stocks, see FMP's gold exploration momentum hub.

Falcon Metals is the first Victorian gold explorer to reach the Top 10 in the recorded window; its Blue Moon programme in the Bendigo Zone sits roughly 25 kilometres from Agnico Eagle's Fosterville mine. On 3 August 2026 Falcon reported diamond drilling that extended mineralisation to more than 850 metres of strike across five stacked zones, including a Jasmine Zone intercept of 0.3 metres at 98.3 grams per tonne gold.

Data Centre and AI Infrastructure — Two Companies, Two Different Businesses

DXN Limited (ASX: DXN) at rank #2 and Kalina Power (ASX: KPO) at rank #8 both sit downstream of the same demand, from opposite ends of it. DXN designs and manufactures modular data centres; in August 2026 it won a contract of approximately A$4.1 million to build a prefabricated edge data centre for Australia Pacific Airports (Melbourne), disclosing a further A$1.6 million variation to existing Globalstar work on the same day. Kalina Power develops gas-fired generation in Alberta, Canada, aimed at data centre and industrial loads, and holds five secured project sites there. Under the Alberta Electric System Operator's Large Load Allocation Process, as reported, large data centres seeking grid access are expected to contract with generators bringing on at least an equivalent amount of new generation — a regime that makes a secured generation site a contractable asset. A theme carried by two companies in different sectors is a broader signal than the same count inside one industry. FMP's data centre infrastructure hub will be linked here as it is published.

Copper Exploration — Two Companies, Two Continents

Sierra Nevada Gold (ASX: SNX) at rank #7 and Midas Minerals (ASX: MM1) at rank #9 are both copper stories despite the gold in one name and the Western Australian history of the other. Sierra Nevada's Phase 1 programme at the As Safra project in Saudi Arabia comprised 28 holes for approximately 5,400 metres and confirmed a coherent copper system across an 800-metre zone, with surface sampling reported on 19 August 2026 returning up to 15.8% copper. Midas Minerals has declared an initial Inferred Mineral Resource at its T-13 deposit in Namibia of 10.5 million tonnes at 1.6% copper and 21 grams per tonne silver. Copper exploration is typically sustained by step-out drilling that grows a defined system rather than by a single discovery hole. FMP's copper momentum hub will be linked here as it is published.

Regenerative Medicine — The Highest Momentum Score on the List

AVITA Medical (ASX: AVH) holds rank #1 with the highest momentum score on the list, 0.5137. AVITA is a commercial-stage business rather than a clinical-stage one: its Q2 CY2026 result recorded net revenue of US$21.7 million, up 18% year on year, at a gross margin of 81.9%, with full-year guidance raised to US$86–89 million and cashflow breakeven guided to the fourth quarter of 2026. A commercial medical device company reaching the top of a momentum list dominated by explorers is unusual, and the theme is typically sustained by revenue and reimbursement milestones rather than by drilling.

US Shale Oil — A Single Name

Australis Oil & Gas (ASX: ATS) holds rank #3 for the week ending 22 August 2026 with a quarterly gain of +87.50%, the only energy name on the list. Its Tuscaloosa Marine Shale acreage in Louisiana and Mississippi is the subject of a Carry Program under which a development partner deploys up to approximately A$70.4 million, and the Willson 1H well permit has been approved with drilling targeted for the fourth quarter of 2026. A single-company theme is recorded rather than interpreted; three consecutive readings carried by at least two companies is the threshold at which Finer Market Points treats a theme as established.

What Does This Week's Data Reveal About ASX Momentum Conditions?

The defining feature of the week ending 22 August 2026 is turnover. Seven of the ten companies are appearing in the Finer Market Points Top 10 for the first time across the twelve weekly readings recorded since 30 May 2026, and seven of the nine companies published a week earlier have left the list. Only AVITA Medical and King River Resources appear in both weeks.

Three further observations follow from the table:

Weekly gains are tightly clustered. Eight of the ten companies gained between +15.97% and +35.14% over the week. The list is not being set by one outlying move.
Quarterly gains are not clustered at all. They run from +31.43% to +1,185.71%, a spread of more than thirty-seven times, which means companies are entering the list at very different stages of their moves.
Two entries arrived inside eight sessions. Ausgold at 7 sessions and Midas Minerals at 8 sessions had barely reached the Top 30 before reaching the Top 10 — the pattern that follows a discrete, dated catalyst rather than a gradual advance. Traders studying that pattern will find it described in FMP's guide to episodic pivot characteristics.

The current list is published each week on the FMP ASX momentum leaders hub, which carries the running record of which themes have led the list through 2026.

How Did the FMP Launch Pad Perform This Week?

All ten of this week's momentum leaders carry a Launch Pad record — the first week in the recorded series in which the Launch Pad had already identified every company on the Top 10 before this article published.

The strongest Launch Pad returns for the week ending 22 August 2026 were:

Company	ASX Code	Sessions Since Launch Pad Entry	Gain Since Launch Pad Entry
AVITA Medical	AVH	39	+141.74%
King River Resources	KRR	45+	+121.05%
Hamelin Gold	HMG	44	+117.39%
Kalina Power	KPO	45+	+92.31%

AVITA Medical (ASX: AVH) recorded the best Launch Pad return on the Finer Market Points list for the week ending 22 August 2026, at +141.74% since Launch Pad entry 39 sessions earlier. King River Resources followed at +121.05%. Across all ten companies the average return since Launch Pad entry was +80.73%, and the average tenure since Launch Pad entry was at least 30.8 trading sessions — a floor rather than a precise figure, because two of the ten counters sit at the 45-session ceiling and record only that the company entered 45 or more sessions ago.

Members holding the Launch Pad data saw each of these ten companies on the daily Launch Pad ranking before any of them reached this public Top 10 list.

Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Launch Pad return figures reflect historical gains for the stocks identified; they do not represent guaranteed outcomes.

What Did Members Receive Before This Article Published?

Finer Market Points YouTube Members receive the full Top 30 momentum list and the accompanying Launch Pad data on Thursday afternoon, ahead of this public article and covering three times as many companies as the ten published here. Members therefore see the companies building momentum in ranks 11 to 30 — the band that most of this week's entrants passed through before reaching the Top 10 — rather than only those that have already arrived.

Membership gives members early access to the educational data discussed in this article, together with the recorded weekly session in which the charts behind the list are reviewed.

Become a YouTube Member →

The Momentum Profile provides access to the full proprietary research behind the weekly list, including the momentum score and the Launch Pad methodology referenced throughout this article.

Who Writes the FMP Momentum Research?

Christopher Hall, AdvDipFP, is an Authorised Representative under AFSL 526688 and writes the Finer Market Points momentum research, including this weekly list and the company research published alongside it. Christopher Hall works exclusively with Australian listed markets, and the momentum framework applied here — the quarterly ranking, the Top 30 momentum list and the Launch Pad — is Finer Market Points' own proprietary research database rather than a third-party screen. The weekly session in which the charts behind these companies are reviewed is conducted by Gary Glover (AR 259215), Authorised Representative of Novus Capital Limited (AFSL 238 168), who reviews ASX momentum stocks in a recorded weekly session with Finer Market Points.

Remember that past performance is no guarantee of future results, and all trading involves risk.

What Else Do Traders Ask About the FMP Momentum List?

What are the top ASX momentum stocks this week?

For the week ending Saturday 22 August 2026 the Finer Market Points ASX Top 10 momentum stocks were AVITA Medical (AVH) at +122.40% quarterly, DXN Limited (DXN) at +1,185.71%, Australis Oil & Gas (ATS) at +87.50%, Hamelin Gold (HMG) at +100.00%, King River Resources (KRR) at +223.08%, Ausgold (AUC) at +77.30%, Sierra Nevada Gold (SNX) at +69.01%, Kalina Power (KPO) at +78.57%, Midas Minerals (MM1) at +41.36% and Falcon Metals (FAL) at +31.43%. The list is ranked by a momentum score rather than by quarterly gain alone, which is why the largest quarterly percentage does not sit at rank #1.

What are the best performing ASX shares this week?

On the Finer Market Points list for the week ending 22 August 2026, the best performing ASX shares over the week were Hamelin Gold (ASX: HMG) at +35.14% and Ausgold (ASX: AUC) at +35.05%, followed by AVITA Medical (ASX: AVH) at +25.79%. Eight of the ten companies on the list gained between +15.97% and +35.14% over the week, so the weekly spread across the list was unusually narrow. These figures were captured intraday on Friday 21 August 2026 and are not closing-price figures.

Which Australian shares have gained the most this quarter?

Across the Finer Market Points Top 10 for the week ending 22 August 2026, the Australian shares that gained the most over the quarter were DXN Limited (ASX: DXN) at +1,185.71%, King River Resources (ASX: KRR) at +223.08% and AVITA Medical (ASX: AVH) at +122.40%. Every company on the list gained at least +31.43% over the quarter. The quarterly measure covers a rolling 90-session window, so a large gain recorded early in that window falls out of the figure as the window rolls forward — which is why DXN's quarterly gain has moved between +1,318.75% and +566.67% across previous readings without any change in the underlying data.

What is a quarterly momentum stock?

A quarterly momentum stock is a company whose share price has risen strongly over a rolling 90-trading-session window and is still rising at the point of measurement. Finer Market Points ranks the ASX on that quarterly window because a weekly measure rewards a single news day and a twelve-month measure rewards moves that are largely complete, while a quarter is long enough for a trend to establish and short enough for it to still be running.

How does FMP identify ASX momentum leaders?

Finer Market Points ranks every ASX-listed company on a proprietary momentum score that combines quarterly and weekly price performance, then publishes the top ten publicly each Saturday and the top thirty to members. Each company is tagged to a thematic category so that the weekly list also records which themes are leading, and every appearance is written to a time-series register that now covers twelve weekly readings from 30 May 2026.

What is the Launch Pad list and how does it work?

The FMP Launch Pad is a separate daily ranking of the top thirty ASX companies on a momentum-derived measure distinct from the momentum score itself. A company that enters the Launch Pad has met that measure's threshold; the "Launch Pad Entry" column counts the trading sessions since it did so, and the "Gain Since Launch Pad" column records the price movement over that period. For the week ending 22 August 2026 all ten momentum leaders carried a Launch Pad record, averaging +80.73% since entry.

How can traders access the momentum list before it publishes?

Finer Market Points YouTube Members receive the full Top 30 momentum list and the Launch Pad data on Thursday afternoon, ahead of the public Saturday article, together with the recorded weekly session reviewing the charts behind the list.

Why are this week's momentum figures intraday rather than closing prices?

This week's dataset was captured on Friday 21 August 2026 before the market closed. Every percentage in the table is therefore calculated from intraday prices rather than closing prices, and those figures will differ from Friday's close. The ranking order, the thematic composition and the trading-session counters are not affected by the earlier capture; the individual percentages are accurate to the moment of capture rather than to a settled session.

Sources

#	Source	Type
1	FMP Momentum Research, weekly Top 10 momentum dataset, captured Friday 21 August 2026 pre-close	FMP Proprietary Data
2	FMP Launch Pad, weekly Launch Pad dataset, captured Friday 21 August 2026 pre-close	FMP Proprietary Data
3	OceanaGold Corporation — definitive scheme implementation deed to acquire 100% of Ausgold Limited, announced 17 August 2026 (0.03365 OceanaGold shares per Ausgold share, implying A$1.36 per share on OceanaGold's 14 August 2026 close; 28% premium to last close and 44% to the 20-day VWAP; cash pool capped at A$194 million; completion expected December 2026)	Company Disclosure (via PR Newswire and secondary reporting)
4	Hamelin Gold Limited — Day Dawn Phase 1 RC assays from the Aurora and Altus lodes (including 3 m at 93.40 g/t Au from 9 m), 3,000 m Phase 2 RC programme commenced, EIS co-funded diamond programme from the second half of September 2026	Company Disclosure (via secondary reporting)
5	Falcon Metals Limited — Blue Moon diamond drilling assays announced 3 August 2026, mineralisation extended to more than 850 m of strike across five stacked zones, Jasmine Zone 0.3 m at 98.3 g/t Au	Company Disclosure (via secondary reporting)
6	Sierra Nevada Gold Inc. — As Safra Phase 1 drilling (28 holes for approximately 5,400 m; 800 m Central Copper Zone) and surface sampling to 15.8% Cu and 5.83 g/t Au, reported 19 August 2026	Company Disclosure (via secondary reporting)
7	DXN Limited — approximately A$4.1 million contract with Australia Pacific Airports (Melbourne) for a prefabricated edge data centre, plus a A$1.6 million Globalstar variation, August 2026	Company Disclosure (via secondary reporting)
8	Australis Oil & Gas Limited — Tuscaloosa Marine Shale Carry Program (up to approximately A$70.4 million / US$46 million) and Willson 1H well permit approved by the Mississippi State Oil & Gas Board, drilling targeted Q4 2026	Company Disclosure (via secondary reporting)
9	Alberta Electric System Operator — Large Load Allocation Process, under which large data centres seeking grid access are expected to contract with generators bringing on at least an equivalent amount of new generation; final rules expected August 2026	Regulatory Body (via secondary reporting)
10	Midas Minerals Limited — Otavi Project, Namibia: initial Inferred Mineral Resource at T-13 of 10.5 Mt at 1.6% Cu and 21 g/t Ag; T-13 West high-grade zone defined 8 July 2026; Spaatzu copper-silver extension 6 July 2026	Company Disclosure (via secondary reporting)
11	AVITA Medical, Inc. — Q2 CY2026 result (net revenue US$21.7 million, +18% year on year; gross margin 81.9%; full-year guidance raised to US$86–89 million; cashflow breakeven guided to Q4 2026)	Company Disclosure (via secondary reporting)
12	Kalina Power Limited — five secured Alberta power project sites; 2025 sale of a 180 MW load allocation to Meta for C$18 million	Company Disclosure (via secondary reporting)
13	Finer Market Points, "What is Episodic Pivot Trading?" (educational reference — Bonde and Kullamägi methodologies)	FMP Educational Article
14	Finer Market Points, ASX Gold Explorer Momentum Stocks research hub (educational reference)	FMP Educational Article

Christopher Hall's reading of this week's turnover rate, and of the cross-sector pairing between a data centre manufacturer and a power developer, are anecdotal observations developed across his trading and market-analysis career, not the output of a study. Company catalyst details for Hamelin Gold, Falcon Metals, Sierra Nevada Gold, DXN, Australis Oil & Gas, Midas Minerals, AVITA Medical, Kalina Power and Ausgold were sourced from secondary financial media reporting on those companies' 2026 releases and have not yet been confirmed against the primary announcements; they are reported here as company-stated figures. The OceanaGold acquisition of Ausgold is subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals and had not completed at the date of this article. All percentage figures in this article derive from a dataset captured intraday on Friday 21 August 2026 and are not closing-price figures.

Related Finer Market Points Educational Resources

Educational Disclaimer: This content is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Consider your financial situation and seek professional advice before making investment decisions.

Finer Market Points Pty Ltd, CAR 1304002, AFSL 526688, ABN 87 645 284 680. This general information is educational only and not financial advice, recommendation, forecast or solicitation. Consider your objectives, financial situation and needs before acting. Seek appropriate professional advice. We accept no liability for any loss or damages arising from use. Authors and presenters may hold positions in discussed companies and investment products.