Australian cleantech stocks fall behind ASX200, stay ahead of Small Ords

The Australian CleanTech Index gained 7.8 per cent in February 2015 and again outperformed the Small Ordinaries Index, rising from 43.66 to 47.07 over the month. This compared to the S&P ASX200 gain of 8.3 per cent and the S&P ASX Small Ordinaries Index gain of 6.3 per cent. The Australian CleanTech 20 recorded a 7.7 per cent gain.

The quarterly and 12 month performances of the Index remain ahead of both benchmarks with 13.5 per cent and 22.6 per cent gains respectively.

The best performing sub-indices for the month were the Australian Environment Index with a gain of 16.8 per cent, led by Aeris Environmental, and the Australian Renewable Energy Index with a 9.3 per cent gain despite the ongoing debacle of the RET review.

Luckily New Zealand’s renewable energy companies continue to make profits for Australian investors! The weakest sub-index through February was the Australian Waste Index, recording a gain of only 3.5 per cent.

The market capitalisation of the 62 stocks in the Australian CleanTech Index is $A18.7 billion setting another new high and up to over three times its low of $6.2 billion in July 2012.

The month’s performance was driven by 11 companies with gains of more than 25 per cent. The greatest percentage gains were recorded by Mission NewEnergy (MBT), Enerji (ERJ) and AnaeCo (ANQ). The greatest market capitalisation gain was again recorded by Meridian Energy (MEZCA).

These gains were partially offset by 9 companies recording losses of more than 10 per cent led by Papyrus Australia (PPY), Coffey (COF), Neometals (NMT) and Vmoto (VMT). The greatest market capitalisation loss was recorded by Transpacific Industries (TPI).