The Other Elon Musk ETF Responds as Tesla Tops $100

Shares of electric maker Tesla TSLA are soaring by nearly 9.7 percent Tuesday on volume that is more than double the daily average, a move that helped the darling stock touch a new all-time high at $105.40 earlier today. Tesla's bullish ways are helping the PowerShares WilderHill Clean Energy Portfolio PBW to a gain of almost 1.1 percent. PBW, one of many alternative energy ETFs left for dead last year, has been reborn as the Elon Musk ETF due to the fund's combined 10.7 percent weight to Tesla and SolarCity SCTY, Musk's two companies. PBW is not the only ETF from the PowerShares lineup that is benefiting from investors' adulation of Musk. Though to a smaller degree, the PowerShares Global Clean Energy Portfolio PBD is another option to consider for grabbing simultaneous exposure to Tesla and SolarCity. PBD, which tracks the WilderHill New Energy Global Innovation Index, features Musk's two companies as its two largest holdings as does PBW. In the case of PBD, Tesla and SolarCity combine for nearly eight percent of the ETF's weight. That is not a huge allocation to those high-flying stocks, but is enough to have pushed PBD to new 52-week high today on volume that is almost 50 percent higher than normal. The ascent of SolarCity and Tesla to rock star status has been a boon for PBD as the ETF is now flirting with a one-month gain of 14 percent. To put the impact of Tesla and SolarCity on PBD into dollar terms, look at situation this way: Through the first four months of this year, the ETF gained 27 cents. In the past month, the ETF is up $1.28. Investors are discovering the utility of PBD as an alternative Elon Musk ETF. For the week ending May 27, the ETF pulled in almost $3.8 million of its $73.5 million in assets under management, according to PowerShares data. Other top-10 holdings in the ETF include First Solar FSLR and SunPower SPWR. Investors should note PBD is not fully allocated to U.S. equities. Rather, the U.S. accounts for just over 41 percent of the ETF's country weight and the fund features a combined 23.2 percent weight to emerging markets China, Brazil, Taiwan and South Korea. For more on ETFs, click here.