Solar stocks are soaring as oil price spike furthers bets on pivot to renewable energy

• Shares of renewable energy companies jumped Tuesday on the back of soaring prices for oil and other fossil fuels.
• Enphase and FuelCell were among the stocks in the wider clean energy group that advanced.

Shares of renewable energy companies spiked higher Tuesday, highlighting moves by investors to capitalize on shortages of oil and other fossil fuels exacerbated by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

A batch of solar and hydrogen energy stocks advanced as did exchange-traded funds that house alternative energy shares. As well, the S&P Global Clean Energy Index rose by 6% intraday.

Solar energy systems maker Enphase Energy climbed as much as 19% and hit a one-month high at $182.65 before paring the intraday rise to 10%. SolarEdge gained 13% to notch a more than three-month high and SunRun also jumped 13% to log a seven-week high.

Among hydrogen stocks, Plug Power rose 10%, Ballard Power leapt 13%, FuelCell Energy picked up 9.5% and Bloom Energy advanced 14%. Among alternative energy funds, the Defiance Next Gen H2 ETF soared 10%, and the Global X Solar ETF moved up 5.5%.

The moves follow surges in prices for crude oil, natural gas and coal in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine nearly two weeks ago. Russia is a major producer of those energy commodities, and investors have bid up prices in anticipation of supply disruptions stemming in part from international sanctions against Russia.

The West piled on to those sanctions Tuesday. President Joe Biden said the US will ban imports of oil from Russia. And the UK said it will phase out the importation of Russian oil and oil products by the end of 2022. Brent crude, the international benchmark, and West Texas Intermediate crude climbed Tuesday, holding firmly around 2008 highs. Brent traded around $130 a barrel.

Retail investors significantly ramped up purchases of clean energy names, Vanda Research said last week. The tracker of retail investing activity said it would monitor whether any backlash against the dependence on Russia for energy imports would spark another wave of heavy retail buying into renewables.

Even before Russia's attack on Ukraine, energy prices were surging. Oil had been rising as the global market experienced a shortage during a time of high demand as COVID infections and restrictions worldwide eased.

And the natural gas market had already been dealing with supply problems after the harsh winters of 2020 and 2021 severely depleted inventories in Europe and Asia, Quinn Kiley, managing director and senior portfolio manager at Tortoise, told Insider last week.