IT'S RELATIVE

摘要

Consistent with turbulent economic conditions, the Edison Electric Institute (Eel) Index, composed of 59 shareholder-owned electric utilities, finished the year with a negative (-25.9 percent) performance. For the fifth year in a row, the eei Index outperformed the Dow Jones Industrial Average (-31.9 percent),rnthe s&p 500 (-37.0 percent), and the Nasdaq Composite (-40.5 percent).rnThe majority of companies in the index (81 percent) posted double-digit percentage losses. There were a few exceptions: Five companies (8.5 percent of the index) posted positive re-turns-CH Energy Group (21.5 percent), Maine and Maritimes (15.9 percent), nstar (5.1 percent), Puget Energy (3.3 percent), and Hawaiian Electric (2.2 per-cent). Though 2008 was negative for thernutility, Allegheny Energy had the highest five-year return of 169.9 percent.