Top Basic Materials Small-Cap Star for April 14 is Harvest Natural Resources Inc. (HNR)

Investing in small-cap materials stocks can be tricky. The direction of the broader economy often plays a big role in their success, and notoriously unpredictable factors like mining output or commodity prices can often be key to maintaining margins. But equities.com's Small-Cap Stars, our proprietary list of those small-cap companies with metrics that are typically the most indicative of future success, gives investors a way to identify those companies that are best-positioned to ride out the tough times and make major gains in the good times.

Here's a look at the five top-performing basic materials Small-Cap Stars:

Harvest Natural Resources Inc. (HNR)

Harvest Natural Resources Inc. gained 128.92% to $1.01. The gains came on a volume of 5,850,600 shares against an average daily volume of 196,049 shares. Harvest Natural Resources Inc. has had a trading range from $5.35 to $0.37 over the last year, it has a 50-day SMA of $0.56, and a 200-day SMA of $2.64.

Harvest Natural Resources Inc is an energy company engaged in the acquisition, exploration, development, production and disposition of oil and natural gas properties.

Eagle Rock Energy Partners Lp Unit Ltd Partnership Int (EROC)

Eagle Rock Energy Partners Lp Unit Ltd Partnership Int gained 6.72% to $2.54. The gains came on a volume of 517,491 shares against an average daily volume of 341,020 shares. Eagle Rock Energy Partners Lp Unit Ltd Partnership Int has had a trading range from $5.25 to $1.78 over the last year, it has a 50-day SMA of $2.48, and a 200-day SMA of $3.13.

Eagle Rock Energy Partners LP is engaged in exploitation, development, and production of oil and natural gas properties. It is also engaged in gathering, compressing, treating, processing and marketing services of natural gas and natural gas liquids.

Miller Energy Resources (MILL)

Miller Energy Resources gained 5.86% to $1.01. The gains came on a volume of 1,012,980 shares against an average daily volume of 738,423 shares. Miller Energy Resources has had a trading range from $6.60 to $0.62 over the last year, it has a 50-day SMA of $1.37, and a 200-day SMA of $3.02.

Miller Energy Resources Inc operates as an exploration and production company that utilizes seismic data and other technologies for geophysical exploration and development of oil and gas wells.

Synergy Resources Corp (SYRG)

Synergy Resources Corp gained 5.86% to $12.47. The gains came on a volume of 1,488,630 shares against an average daily volume of 1,450,173 shares. Synergy Resources Corp has had a trading range from $14.11 to $8.05 over the last year, its P/E ratio is 22.7, it has a 50-day SMA of $11.73, and a 200-day SMA of $11.92.

Synergy Resources Corp is an oil & natural gas company. It is engaged in the acquisition, development, exploitation, exploration and production of oil and natural gas properties located in the Denver-Julesburg Basin in northeast Colorado.

Gastar Exploration (GST)

Gastar Exploration gained 5.54% to $3.05. The gains came on a volume of 856,967 shares against an average daily volume of 712,600 shares. Gastar Exploration has had a trading range from $9.10 to $1.89 over the last year, its P/E ratio is 5.3, it has a 50-day SMA of $2.76, and a 200-day SMA of $4.55.

Gastar Exploration Inc is an independent energy company. It is engaged in the exploration, development and production of oil, condensate, natural gas and NGLs in the US.

Equities.com's Small-Cap Stars - Stocks Made From Sterner Stuff

Investing in small-cap materials stocks is a high-risk, high-reward proposition much of the time. Often, the best way to approach the sector is simply limiting the number of misses as much as possible. And that's what the equities.com Small-Cap Stars system does.

By looking at past success stories among basic materials small caps, the Small-Cap Stars system can identify what level several dozen metrics were at among those successful companies and determine which of those factors were the most predictive of future success. We then precisely construct a carefully balanced screen through advanced statistical regression that will identify those companies that currently have the most in common with those that succeeded in the past immediately before those stocks took off.

Among the traits our system found the most revealing of a strong materials company were a low ratio of enterprise value to sales, a low effective tax rate, and a high ROE-cost of equity.

All data provided by QuoteMedia and was accurate as of 4:30 pm ET.