The national markets took a volatile ride and ended up flat. Colorado stocks, however, ended the first quarter solidly in the black.

The Bloomberg Rocky Mountain News Index rose 6.1 percent in the quarter, closing at 405.74. That's near its 52-week high of 409.75 from Feb. 23.

By comparison, the Standard & Poor's 500, the Dow Jones and the Nasdaq all closed the quarter in a range of plus or minus 1 percent.

The return builds on a stellar 2006 that is part of a long-term overperformance by Colorado companies. The state index returned 17.3 percent last year, compared with the S&P's 13.6 percent. That margin was the narrowest in four years.

A revival in energy and natural resources stocks always is beneficial for Colorado, whose corporate community is heavily weighted to oil, gas and mining.

Indeed, five of the top 10 stocks among larger companies fit into the sector, including three of the top five.

All told, 44 of the 62 larger Colorado companies beat the S&P 500 return of 0.18 percent. Twenty-one of the companies posted double-digit returns.

The Rocky Mountain News tracks stock prices for all Colorado-headquartered companies, including closed-end mutual funds, that trade on a major exchange and have a market value of $10 million or more. The Rocky segments the list into larger and smaller companies with $250 million in market capitalization as the dividing line.

The champion among larger stocks, TeleTech Holdings, rose 53.6 percent in the quarter.

On Feb. 7, the outsourcing company announced its fourth-quarter earnings had doubled over the prior year's figures. It also indicated it expected 2007 revenue growth of about 15 percent, and 2008 revenue growth of 12 percent to 15 percent. TeleTech expects operating margins to expand each year.

Top-line growth, coupled with expanding margins, means big profit increases and Wall Street bid up the stock 24 percent in a single day after that announcement. The company was able to keep the gain, and add on, by quarter-end.

The gain in TeleTech has vaulted its CEO, Kenneth Tuchman, onto the Forbes magazine billionaires list. Tuchman intends to sell 5 million shares of TeleTech at $36.50, taking his ownership in the company down to 46 percent from 53 percent.

Colorado's smaller companies did not fare as well as their big brethren, with just 18 of 51 in positive territory.

The champion, Ascent Solar Technologies, gained 178.3 percent in the quarter. This month, Norsk Hydro ASA bought nearly one-quarter of the company at a 25 percent premium to the prior day's closing price. But investors nearly doubled its shares in one day on the news that an international industrial giant saw something it liked in the Jefferson County company.

David Milstead is finance editor of the Rocky Mountain News. He can be reached at milstead@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2648.