Green firms lose uplift

That's the reality facing a cluster of renewable energy and carbon-abatement stocks today, after their stint as market darlings was savagely cut short by bearish investors yesterday.

Tree growers CO2 Group was among those cut down to size, its shares losing 3? or more than 11 per cent of their value to close at 23.5?.

That result more than erased the 8 per cent gains made on Monday, but left the company still ahead over the past week.

The warm glow of the carbon tax announcement also began to fade for geothermal aspirants like Geodynamics.

After three successive trading days lifted the value of its shares by 16 per cent, 19 per cent, then 25 per cent, Geodynamics went cold yesterday. A slump of more than 14 per cent took its price from 42? back to 36?.

Fellow geothermal stock Petratherm also got the cold shoulder from the market, falling 2? or nearly 11 per cent to close at 17?.

The falls came on a bad day for most stocks, with the S&P/ASX 200 Index dropping 1.9 per cent.