A month dictated by fear

Fear dictated the relative performance of all financial assets - bonds, equities and currencies - over the last month.  Investors increasingly took on a  fight or flight mode.

During the month concerns over European sovereign debt and the banking sector, in Spain in particular, weighed heavily on investor sentiment leading to a flight to safety.

The liquidity crunch faced by Spanish lenders, as well as deteriorating growth in China and India, led to falls in the Asian stock markets, too.

The more defensive areas of the market, such as utilities and pharmaceuticals, outperformed while banks and mining companies underperformed.

Our pick for the Ethical/Renewable Energy Portfolio this month is:

• Hain Celestial Group (Nasdaq: HAIN).

This company’s strong fundamentals and favorable outlook are compelling even in a volatile market.

The company is a leader in natural food and personal care products categories with an extensive portfolio of well-known brands such as :

Celestial Seasonings® - a leader in specialty tea which has been around since 1969, Terra®, Garden of Eatin’®, Health Valley®, WestSoy®, Earth’s Best®, Arrowhead Mills®, DeBoles®, Hain Pure Foods®, FreeBird™, Hollywood®, Spectrum Naturals®, Spectrum Essentials®, Walnut Acres Organic™, Imagine Foods™, Rice Dream®, Soy Dream®, Rosetto®, Ethnic Gourmet®, Yves Veggie Cuisine®, Linda McCartney®, Realeat®, Lima®, Grains Noirs®, Natumi®, JASON®, Zia® Natural Skincare, Avalon Organics®, Alba Botanica® and Queen Helene®

The company has a commitment to economic and social sustainability and a strong commitment to human health.We believe Hain Celestial offers investors one of the strongest growth profiles in the industry. The stock could be poised to surge as the economy gradually revives and the appetite for organic foods gets bigger. 

Shares of the company have portrayed an upward trend so far this year, giving a return of 45.9%. It seems that  Hain is well positioned to capitalize on the growing global demand for organic products. Check out all the details of this company in the report on the website...

Solar and Cleantech stocks have taken a pounding over the last six months and it would be understandable if you are feeling jittery about this sector.

However, once the sentiment in the overall market picks up, we believe that this sector still has a viable and profitable future ahead.

The mass production of solar technology has created economies of scale, making once-expensive solar panels competitive with fossil fuels.