NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - With so many stocks hitting new 52-week highs these days, it's pretty easy to think it's all one big happy rally. Yeah, tell that to holders of HCA, Freddie Mac, or Qualcomm, just three of the runup's 20 lurking losers.

Granted, loser in this kind of rally is a relative term. J.C. Penney (JCP: Research, Estimates), loser No. 4, is down just 8.7 percent since the rally started March 12 as of Thursday's close. Sector mate Kohl's (KSS: Research, Estimates), loser No. 5, is down just 7.7 percent.

This doesn't seem like much, but compare it to other sector mates of theirs. May Department Stores (MAY: Research, Estimates) is up 20 percent as of Thursday's close, Federated Department Stores (FD: Research, Estimates) is up 38 percent, Sears, Roebuck (S: Research, Estimates) is up 75 percent.

DTE Energy (DTE: Research, Estimates), No. 20 on the list, with a gain of only 0.9 percent over the last three months, really stands out compared with the rest of the sector. Of the top five biggest winners, three are energy companies, with Calpine (CPN: Research, Estimates) up 162 percent, AES (AES: Research, Estimates) up 152 percent and CMS Energy (CMS: Research, Estimates) up 120 percent.

In fact, the remaining 480 S&P 500 stocks are up at least one percent since March 12. March 12 was the first up day for the three major indexes after they hit new five-month lows the day before on worries about the war in Iraq. Sentiment began to change during that period to hopes that the war would be brief and that its end would bring a period of economic recovery.

That hasn't really happened, but the optimism was such that investors pushed their recovery hopes to the end of the year and kept buying stocks. In particular, they've been buying just about anything in the financial and banking sector -- a trend that typically signals a pending recovery -- as well as energy stocks, consumer products stocks and a variety of technology issues.

What unites many of the rally's top gainers is that they play into hopes for a recovery. What also unites them is that they haven't announced any significant corporate setbacks in the last three months. But the losers sure have.

"It's tough to be down in an up market. But as an investor, you protect yourself and don't just own one stock," said Brian Finnerty, managing director at Melhado, Flynn & Associates. "I wouldn't write all these companies off. HCA, Freddie Mac, you know why those are down. Some of the others may just be having temporary problems."

Here's a look at the five biggest losers and what's sapped their mojo over the last three months.

1) HCA, down 21.5 percent. The No. 1 hospital operator warned in mid-April that its quarter would sharply miss expectations due to a lighter flu season and pressure on both Medicare and managed care pricing. The stock immediately plunged 20 percent and has limped along since then.

2) Freddie Mac, down 11.3 percent. On Monday, the mortgage lender said it had fired its president and other top executives due to a "lack of cooperation" as it was restating earnings. Since then, Federal prosecutors have started a criminal probe into the company and Standard & Poor's has downgraded its equity rating to "avoid" from "hold."

3) Qualcomm, down 10.9 percent. The maker of technology used in mobile phones has had all kinds of problems lately: SARS-related concerns due to its strong dependance on Asian markets, brokerage doubts and a lackluster forecast for its current quarter.

4) J.C. Penney, down 8.7 percent, and 5) Kohl's, down 7.7 percent. The two competitors have been suffering earnings-related woes for the last three months. J.C. Penney warned in early April that its quarter would miss expectations. Its stock tumbled at the time and has been edging lower since then. Kohl's has been suffering from weak monthly same-store sales and overall anemic growth over the last few months after experiencing a strong growth spurt in the past few years.