French energy major Total SA's (TOTF.PA) landmark $1.37 billion offer for a majority stake in U.S. company SunPower Corp (SPWRA.O) gave fresh impetus to hopes of more deals, lifting global solar stocks. Total's move is one of the biggest ever by an oil and gas giant into the market for renewable energy, which has seen a resurgence of interest following the nuclear crisis at Japan's Fukushima power plant caused by last month's earthquake and tsunami. Investors have been waiting for years for large-scale consolidation in the solar sector. But activity has been muted as the industry is still in its early stages and dependent on government subsidies to compete with fossil fuels. Big utilities have so far shunned the sector -- which predominantly features small roof-installed systems -- in favor of large-scale wind farms that fit better into their business models.
SunPower Corporation (SunPower) is a vertically integrated solar products and services company that designs, manufactures and markets high-performance solar electric power technologies. Shares of SPWRA traded higher by 34.31% or $5.53/share to $21.65. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $9.61 and as high as $19.88. On average, 3709340 shares of SPWRA exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 14182058.
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