A top Wall Street bank handpicked 7 little-known clean-energy stocks to buy now to benefit as the green economy booms Summary List Placement It was a remarkable year for clean-tech equities, which surged about 200% since the start of 2020 and reached a combined market value of close to $1.5 trillion, according to analysts at Raymon James. With 123 clean-tech companies now trading in US markets, the choice for investors is "practically limitless," the analysts wrote in a report published Wednesday. About half of those companies — from wind giants to electric-car makers — trade on a well-known exchange and are worth more than $1 billion in market value, they said. The performance of clean-energy stocks this year is in stark contrast to that of oil and gas equities. The SP 500 energy index, comprised of oil and gas firms, is down roughly 36% from the start of the year, compared to the broader SP 500, which is up about 15%. Firms that sell oil saw demand for their products plummet with the spread of pandemic-fueled lockdowns. Hundreds of institutional shareholders — that manage as much as $19 trillion in assets — have also divested from coal or other fossil fuels, according to another Raymond James report, published in the fall.