New Energy Index - NEX - Weekly Update

Posted by Tim

March 11, 2008

Another week and another downer for renewable energy. The NEX lost 4% for the week ending Friday, in line with the NASDAQ (-4%) and the S&P 500 (-4.4%). All sectors in the index were down led by hydrogen and fuel cell at a minus 10%. Solar energy continued their negative ways, led by the Chinese solar producers. The sector finished the week down 7.2%.

Solar stocks were a hot item in 2007 and many reached lunar valuations. Solar energy stocks are about 30% of the NEX. The solar index tracked by Cleantech Media has fallen 42.5% year-to-date. I believe solar energy is still a growth industry, but as I mentioned last week, there are plenty of challenges.

Only one sector in the index, power storage, managed a positive return at +0.9%, becoming the only positive sector for the week. Wind energy blew neither hot or cold and remained unchanged.

With oil at $108 with predictions of $200 and natural gas prices rising, renewable energy will at some time come back into investor favor. As I look for a bottom, I will be watching the ETF that tracks the NEX, Powershares Global Clean Energy Fund (PBD: 13.31 +0.32 +2.46%). You can keep an eye on it at this site’s 20 Stock Portfolio. Now on to the winners and losers for the week:

NEX top gainers since 04/03/08
Theolia TEO + 11.5%
Saft Groupe SAFT + 10.1%
Gamesa Corporacion Tecnologica GAM + 10.1%
Power Integrations POWI + 7.0%
Solar Millennium S2M + 6.6%

NEX top losers since 04/03/08
EnerNoc ENOC - 29.9%
VeraSun Energy Corp VSE - 24.3%
Japan Wind Development 2766 - 23.4%
Brasil Ecodiesel Industria e Comercio de Bioc ECOD3 - 20.5%
Yingli Green Energy Holding YGE - 20.4%

Source: New Energy Finance

Note: I currently do not have a position in PBD.