Ten stocks finished the last trading day of the week, clocking significant gains, defying a lackluster market performance, as investors took heart from a flurry of positive developments in the industry. Space companies notably dominated the list.

Meanwhile, Wall Street’s three major indices finished mixed, with the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 the only gainers, up 0.18 percent and 0.11 percent, respectively. The Dow Jones declined by 0.13 percent.

In this article, we name the 10 top performers on Thursday and detail the reasons behind their gains.

To come up with the list, we focused on the stocks with a $2 billion market capitalization and 5 million shares in trading volume.

10. MARA Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MARA)

MARA Holdings saw its share prices increase by 8.33 percent on Thursday to finish at $8.71 apiece, as investors took heart from its reaffirmation of plans to diversify into the artificial intelligence and high-performance computing sectors.

In an updated report earlier, MARA Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MARA) said that it successfully repurchased $1 billion of its debt, potentially reducing shareholder dilution and enhancing financial flexibility in line with plans to diversify into digital energy and AI/HPC infrastructure.

It also successfully sold 15,133 Bitcoins on March 4 and 5, raising as much as $1.1 billion in fresh funds.

“Our decision to sell a portion of our bitcoin holdings reflects a strategic capital allocation move designed to strengthen our balance sheet and position the company for long-term growth. By retiring over $1 billion of face value debt at a discount, we captured approximately $88 million in value that would otherwise have been lost, reduced potential shareholder dilution, and leveraged our bitcoin holdings to meaningfully de-lever the balance sheet on our terms,” said MARA Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MARA) Chairman and CEO Fred Thiel.

“This transaction enhances financial flexibility and increases strategic optionality as we expand beyond pure-play bitcoin mining into digital energy and AI/HPC infrastructure,” he noted.

9. Ondas Inc. (NASDAQ:ONDS)

Ondas saw its share prices jump by 8.97 percent on Thursday to finish at $9.60 apiece as investors cheered its foray into the “near-space” industry with its successful acquisition of a company engaged in flying stratospheric balloons into higher altitudes.

In a statement on the same day, Ondas Inc. (NASDAQ:ONDS) said that it completed the purchase of World View Enterprises Inc.—a pioneer in stratospheric intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) and high-altitude remote sensing using high-altitude balloons—extending its operational architecture beyond drones and robotics.

Ondas Inc. (NASDAQ:ONDS) said that the acquisition was aimed at creating a unified, multi-domain platform designed to meet the evolving requirements of modern defense and security operations through flying long-endurance, high-altitude sensing capable of persisting over areas of interest over a long period.

“Demand for persistent, layered ISR and integrated mission systems is accelerating, driven by active defense modernization programs and increasing operational demand for persistent coverage. We believe Defense and homeland security customers are shifting away from siloed platforms toward software-defined, interoperable architectures capable of delivering continuous intelligence and real-time operational coordination,” Ondas Inc. (NASDAQ:ONDS) said.

“With the addition of World View, Ondas is uniquely positioned to address this need with a unified platform that connects detection, collection, data fusion, and response across distributed environments,” it noted.

8. AST SpaceMobile Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS)

AST SpaceMobile extended its winning streak to a third straight session on Thursday, surging 10.28 percent to close at $92.62 apiece, as investors loaded portfolios ahead of the looming launch of its BlueBird 7.

In a social media post by Blue Origin, it said that AST SpaceMobile Inc.’s (NASDAQ:ASTS) next-generation BlueBird 7 satellite is targeted to take off no earlier than Friday, April 10.

It will fly onboard Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket from the Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

BlueBird 7 is one of the two next-generation satellites, next to BlueBird 6. As compared with the latter, the former is nearly 2,400 square meters in size and 3.5 times bigger than BlueBirds 1 to 5. It also features the largest commercial communications array in low Earth orbit.

“BlueBird 7 moves us closer to delivering a new layer of cellular broadband connectivity for consumers, enterprises, and government customers worldwide,” AST SpaceMobile Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS) President Scott Wisniewski said earlier.

BlueBirds 7 and 6 are both designed to be compatible with all major launch vehicles.

AST SpaceMobile Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS) aims to enable 4G and 5G space-based cellular broadband for billions globally without requiring any changes to mobile devices.

7. Firefly Aerospace Inc. (NASDAQ:FLY)

Firefly Aerospace took off by 10.65 percent on Friday to finish at $32.93 apiece, amid increasing interest in space stocks, buoyed by SpaceX’s looming initial public offering (IPO).

Firefly Aerospace Inc. (NASDAQ:FLY) climbed alongside its counterparts, driven primarily by the growing vote of confidence, as Elon Musk’s SpaceX gears up for one of the largest IPOs in history with a target to raise $75 billion in fresh funds. The public offer could potentially value the company as much as $1.75 trillion.

SpaceX aside, Firefly Aerospace Inc. (NASDAQ:FLY) earlier this month announced mixed earnings performance last year, having widened its net losses but markedly expanded its revenues.

According to the company, net loss attributable to shareholders last year increased by 25.6 percent to $333.96 million from $265.81 million in 2024. Revenues, on the other hand, soared by 163 percent to $159.8 million from $60.79 million.

In the fourth quarter alone, net loss attributable to shareholders narrowed by 60 percent to $41 million from $102.9 million, while revenues soared by 541 percent to $57.67 million from $9.03 million.

6. AXT Inc. (NASDAQ:AXTI)

AXT saw its share prices jump by 12.09 percent on Thursday to finish at $52.84 apiece, as investors resorted to bargain-hunting following a steep drop in the day prior, with the rally backed by continued optimism for a strong first quarter performance.

Earlier this year, AXT Inc. (NASDAQ:AXTI) provided a highly optimistic outlook for the first quarter, saying that it expects to achieve sequential growth amid progress on its export permits that were lacking in the fourth quarter of 2025.

“We are in a strong position to achieve sequential revenue growth in Q1, driven primarily by growth in indium phosphide for the AI infrastructure build-out,” AXT Inc. (NASDAQ:AXTI) CEO Morris Young has said.

“We are also on track to double our indium phosphide manufacturing capacity this year and have a strong balance sheet to support our continued business expansion,” he noted.

Last year, the company widened its attributable net loss by 83 percent to $21.26 million from $11.6 million in 2024. Revenues also declined by 11 percent to $88 million from $99 million year-on-year.

In the fourth quarter alone, attributable net loss narrowed by 31 percent to $3.5 million from $5.09 million, while revenues dropped by 8 percent to $23 million from $25 million.

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