Cockatoo Coal (COK) In one of the more eye-catching rallies of the past week, the Queensland-focused coal junior has gained 35.1 per cent in five sessions to outrun even the better performing of its coal mining peers. Shares have rallied from 55¢ to 74.5¢ since last Thursday far-outstripping larger peers Centennial Coal, up 2.7 per cent and Macarthur Coal, up 3.3 per cent, in the same period. Little wonder the ASX issued Cockatoo with one of its regulation speeding tickets, querying the rise in its share price from 56.5c on April 7 to 71.5c on April 8. In response, the company said it didn't know of any unannounced information that could explain the trading "other than a general interest in the energy and coalmining sector and the paucity of well-priced independent coalmining stocks available to investors." Expectations for rising coal prices have supercharged the share prices of most coal mining juniors since the beginning of the year and, as the negotiated prices suggest, that optimism wasn't misplaced with the price of 2009 coking coal contracts settled at more than $US300 a tonne or more than triple the present price. NeuroDiscovery (NDL) The biotech sector has been the quiet achiever of the past few months and the share price graph on the developer of pain treatments reflects impressive gains the sector has made against the broader market. Shares in NeuroDiscovery have outrun the benchmark index by some 20 per cent since the beginning of the year, gaining 12.5 per cent against the 12.9 per cent fall in the SP/ASX 200 Index in that time. The stock's rally has also trumped the broader healthcare index which is down 6.7 per cent in the year to date. Shares shot up another 17.4 per cent to 13.5¢ today after it released the results of Phase 1 clinical testing of the oral version of its treatment for neuropathic pain, or pain caused by dysfunction of the nervous system. Argonaut Resources (ARE) The gold explorer's winning streak continued for a fourth day today, up another 4 per cent on news exploration drilling at its Laos venture had uncovered "very strong" results - but it faltered late in the day. The stock had gained as much as 20 per cent. Shares closed at 29.5c but have gained 14 per cent in the past four sessions but the stock is still less than half the 73.5¢ level they peaked at in October last year. The base metals miner saw sharp gains last year as investors warmed to the first exploration results at the Kroombit zinc and copper deposit in Queensland and the Torrens iron oxide copper gold prospect in South Australia. Shares shot up 13 per cent in September when the first drill results from its Kroombit zinc and copper site were made public. The company also has the Torrens project, 80 kilometres south-east of Olympic Dam, which analysts have earmarked as a source of significant upside in coming years.