NYSE, Bloomberg Launch 3 Clean Energy Indices

NYSE Euronext and Bloomberg New Energy Finance have launched three regionally-focused clean energy stock indices covering the Americas (ticker NBAMCEUP), the Europe, Middle East and Africa region (NBEACEUP), and Asia and Oceania (NBASCEUP).

Each index follows between 125 and 325 companies with a moderate or greater exposure to renewable energy and what the partners call “energy-smart technologies” – which include efficiency, energy storage and smart grid. These sectors have seen capital spending grow quickly, with new investment in clean energy hitting a record $243bn in 2010.

In the first 10 months of this year, the performance of the three new indices varied substantially. Asia-Oceania was down 33 percent on the same period last year, while the Americas were down 17 percent and EMEA fell 14 percent.

This week’s launches are the first of a new family of clean energy indices that the partners say they will start publishing over the next few months. Next on the agenda are indices for solar and wind power companies, an index for companies specializing in energy-smart technologies, and another for companies involved in electric vehicle development.

BNEF chief executive Michael Liebreich said that while there are already several clean energy indices, including the NEX² index that Bloomberg helped launch in 2006, investors need more detail about prospects in different regions of the world. Asia has become the most dynamic area for such investment, while wind is taking off in Latin America, he said.

Last week Alcoa, Caterpillar, Diageo, Fluor, Ingersoll-Rand, Reed Elsevier and Starbucks were added to the Nasdaq OMX CRD Global Sustainability Index, while Advanced Micro Devices, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Eli Lilly, Petrobras, Raytheon and Shire plc were dropped.

In August NYSE Euronext said it had become the first carbon-neutral global exchange operator, and last month Serious Energy Inc. announced that it had installed its super-insulating SeriousGlass in the New York Stock Exchange building.