Clean-tech stocks outperform general market again, as smart investors buy in

The Australian CleanTech Index has again outperformed the ASX across the 2016-17 financial year, marking the third year in a row of outperformance, over which time it has beaten the general market by a cumulative 54 per cent.

The companies included in the Index are benefiting from the growth across the cleantech sector, including renewable energy, energy efficiency, resource efficiency, energy storage and water treatment.

These are the industries that are redefining how cities work, and how our communities live, so it is no surprise that, regardless of the fickleness of environmental politics, smart investors are benefiting from these trends.

As detailed in the table below, over the fourth quarter of the 2017 fiscal year, the Australian CleanTech Index recorded a gain of 4.7 per cent compared to the ASX200’s loss of 2.4 per cent and the ASX Small Ordinaries’ 0.8 per cent loss. Over the full 2017 fiscal year, the Australian CleanTech Index recorded a gain of 13.1 per cent, ahead of the ASX200’s gain of 9.4 per cent and the ASX Small Ordinaries’ gain of only 3.6 per cent.

The best and worst performers in terms of share price performance over the quarter and full year are shown in the table below.

The Australian CleanTech Index underwent its quarterly re-balancing at the end of June which took account of recent share issues and other corporate activity.

Three companies were added to the Index: Bingo Industries Limited (ASX:BIN) a waste management and recycling company; De.Mem Limited (ASX:DEM) which designs, builds, owns and operates membrane-based, de-centralised water and waste water treatment systems with a focus on the Asia Pacific region; and Lithium Power International Limited (ASX:LPI) is a developer of lithium assets in Australia and South America.

To provide an analysis of the Australian CleanTech Index, a number of sub-indices have been developed. Over the 2016-17 financial year, the best performing index was again the Australian Waste Index, being driven by very strong recoveries from Sims Metal Management and Cleanaway, with the Australian Efficiency & Storage Index showing the weakest performance.

With 65 companies falling under the coverage of the Index and with a combined market capitalisation of over $33.0 billion, the Australian CleanTech Index presents the only complete picture of the Australian cleantech industry’s growth in a single measure.

Every month I get asked how can individuals invest in this Index without having to go through and separately buy up the stocks.

Sadly, to date we have been unable to secure an investment management partner that sees the benefit in establishing a fund that tracks the Index performance and allows the many interested investors to easily benefit.

With the investment management partner that sees the benefit in establishing a fund that tracks the Index performance and allows the many interested investors to easily benefit.

The full Annual Index Performance Report can be downloaded from here and any enquiries from interested fund managers would be very welcome!!