ReneSola Ltd.
It was another underwhelming week for the stock markets, with the broad markets and broad clean energy indices all losing ground over the five days.
The only strongly positive clean energy sector was wind power and technology, with the EnergyBoom Wind Subindex (E•B Wind) increasing 1.35% and the First Trust Global Wind Energy ETF (FAN) climbing 0.90%. Biggest loser was the solar power and technology sector, with the EnergyBoom Solar Subindex (E•B Solar) falling 7.34% and the Guggenheim Solar ETF (TAN) dropping 6.27%.
American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) of Chinese solar wafer and module manufacturer ReneSola Ltd. (NYSE: SOL) (market cap $799 million) fell 16.74% Tuesday -- and recovered 3% in early trading today -- after reporting strong 2010 revenue and earnings growth, but scaring investors with lower gross margins in Q4 compared to Q3 and with a forecast that Q1 2011 revenues will be 14%-20% lower than Q4 2010 revenues.
(OTHER NEWS: Western Wind Energy Corp., A123 Systems, Inc.)
The EnergyBoom solar (E•B Solar) and efficiency (E•B Efficiency) subindices outperformed the broad market indices and the Green ETFs during the first week of 2011.
Leading the E•B Solar were:
- JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd. (NYSE: JKS) 16.9 percent
- GT Solar International, Inc. (NASDAQ: SOLR) 15.13 percent
- ReneSola Ltd. (NYSE: SOL) 11.1 percent
The overall clean tech sector declined dramatically during 2010 compared with strong positive performances for the U.S. overall stock market indices. Most European markets had shaky years and the Shangai Composite Index had the lowest performance among major markets tracked by EnergyBoom (2010 market data below).
However, the real story of 2010 was the spectacular gains of companies that bucked the down-trend for clean tech stocks. Here are the 2010 top 25 companies in the EnergyBoom Clean 100 Index (E•B Clean 100):
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).
EnergyBoom’s E•B Efficiency subindex gain of 3.1 percent last week was the best performance among the EnergyBoom clean sector indices. It also beat the leading green ETFs and all broad market indices.
Solar stocks are showing signs of life today after another drubbing yesterday. Both the EnergyBoom E•B Solar sub-index and the Claymore/MAC Global Solar Index ETF fell more than 4 percent yesterday.
Only a couple of solar stocks escaped yesterday’s downer, however it is worth noting that there has been a significant divide -- as in continental divide -- over the past year in the performance of the Chinese-based companies versus the U.S. and Euro-based companies.
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.
EnergyBoom’s E•B Solar subindex, led by the Chinese low-cost solar cell and module producers, increased 5.10 percent last week. E•B Solar beat EnergyBoom’s other four clean sector indices and all broad market indices except the Hang Seng (Hong Kong) Index which increased 7.18 percent.
Stock market action September 20-24 saw two junior biofuel companies, two solar companies, a junior lithium mining explorer, and an alternative fuels company beat the strongly performing green ETFs and the broad market indices.
