Oct. 2--Oklahoma's top-performing stock for the second straight quarter is the rental car company Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group, which continues to roar back from the brink of bankruptcy.

Tulsa-based Dollar Thrifty, up 77 percent over the past three months, has rocketed up more than 2,000 percent so far this year.

Tulsa money manager Fred Russell said he wishes he had bought the stock at the end of 2008, when it traded for about $1. Dollar Thrifty shares closed the third quarter at $24.59

"You don't need too many of these to be rich," Russell said. "It's really an amazing story."

A former subsidiary of Chrysler Motors, Dollar Thrifty suffered as the auto manufacturer stumbled into bankruptcy as the worldwide economy and markets tanked.

At one point, Chrysler owed Dollar Thrifty about $300 million.

That debt was paid. Meanwhile, Dollar Thrifty negotiated with scores of lenders to restructure its staggering debt as the recession slowed leisure and business travel.

"Once they solved their debt problem and recaptured that liquidity, they were on the open road," said Russell, head of Fredric E. Russell Investment Co.

The stock, priced for bankruptcy, rebounded with a vengeance as investors perceived the company was solvent and the economy was improving, said Jake Dollarhide, chief executive of Longbow Asset Management in Tulsa.

"It's become a darling of the stock market -- a 'me-too' stock," Dollarhide said.

The same type of momentum that pushed the stock price toward oblivion has been driving the price upward, he said.

"A lot of it has been done with speculation; a lot of it is people's hunger for risk," Dollarhide said. "It's probably not a $25 stock; it might become a $25 stock."

Wall Street's major indexes ended the July-September period with big gains, with the Dow Jones industrials and Standard & Poor's 500 index each rising more than 15 percent.

The Dow registered its best quarter since the fourth quarter of 1998.

How the fared Those broad gains were reflected in most Oklahoma stocks, with more than nine local stocks showing improvement to each one that declined.

The biggest losers among state-based publicly traded companies were Osage Bancshares, which fell 14 percent; Matrix Services, down 5 percent; and LSB Industries, which lost 3 percent.

After Dollar Thrifty, the top gainers were energy stocks. Bronco Drilling posted a 53 percent gain during the quarter, and SandRidge Energy added 52 percent.

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