FuelCell Energy Inc.

Stock markets rose today despite the Japanese earthquake, but they failed to overcome the mid-week worries about increasing gasoline prices damaging the fragile economic recovery. 

U.S. stock markets and all overseas markets finished the week in negative territory. Indices reflecting the clean and efficient energy sectors were also down, with solar companies faring the worst.

Two fuel cell companies were among the six top performers in the EnergyBoom Clean 100 Index (E•B Clean 100) over the five trading days leading up to the Christmas break. 

Shares of FuelCell Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ: FCEL) were up 28.7 percent (down 44.5 percent year to date) and shares of Ballard Power Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: BLDP) were up 14.5 percent (down 16 percent YTD).

The EnergyBoom Wind Subindex (E•B Wind) increased 2.27 percent this week to beat the broad market indices and other green sector indices, including First Trust Global Wind Energy ETF (FAN) (+1.09 percent) and NASDAQ OMX Clean Edge Global Wind (^QWND) (+0.65 percent). 

E•B Wind was led by Gamesa Corporacion Tecnologica, S.A. (OTC: GCTAY.PK) which increased 7.75 percent (-52 percent year to date) and Vestas Wind Systems A/S (OTC: VWDRY.PK) which increased 7.04 percent (-47 percent YTD) .

The two top performing companies in the EnergyBoom Clean 100 Index (E•B Clean 100) last week were Capstone Turbine Corporation (NASDAQ: CPST) (+21.2 percent) and FuelCell Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ: FCEL) (+18.8 percent).

Capstone and FuelCell each provides distributed (off-the-grid) power generation systems they claim are cleaner and more efficient than the most commonly used off-the-grid systems powered by diesel engines. 

EnergyBoom’s Biofuel subindex (E•B Biofuel) increased 5.68 percent this week to beat the broad market indices and other green sector indices. 

The subindex was led by Verenium Corporation (NASDAQ: VRNM) which increased 15.55 percent (-15.78 percent year-to-date) and Amyris, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMRS), which was up 12.56 percent (+43.62 percent since its initial public offering in late September). 

Yesterday’s market selloff took a broad swipe across all sectors, with the solar stocks being the hardest hit among green sectors. The E•B Solar subindex lost 6.61 percent yesterday, compared the overall E•B Solar Clean 100 (down 2.98 percent), the S&P 500 Index (down 1.62 percent), the Dow Jones Industrial Average (down 1.59 percent) and the NASDAQ composite (down 1.95 percent). European exchanges were down slightly more than U.S. markets.