Shares of Penn Virginia (PVR), (ARLP), (AHGP), (CLD) Jumping on Japan Coal Demand Expectations

With the exception of a couple of coal companies, almost all of them have been pushing up on expectations Japan will need an abundant supply to make up for the temporary loss of nuclear energy. Companies like Penn Virginia Resource Partners (NYSE:PVR), Alliance Resource Partners (NASDAQ:ARLP), Alliance Holdings GP, (NASDAQ:AHGP) and Cloud Peak Energy Inc. (NYSE:CLD) have been moving up in share price on the expected increased demand, confirming the importance of coal in generating electricity.

Others energy sectors up were those related to solar and wind power, but that is more a knee jerk reaction and irrelevant, as there is nothing there that could help in the short or long term in Japan.

Another demand in Japan is liquefied natural gas, which is also expected to grow in demand, as Japan is the largest importer of LNG in the world.

Penn Virginia Resource Partners closed Thursday at $26.51, gaining $1.00, or 3.92 percent. Alliance Resource Partners closed at $81.07, gaining $4.40, or 5.74 percent. Cloud Peak Energy closed at $21.39, up $0.77, or 3.73 percent. Alliance Holdings ended the session at $56.50, up $2.99, or 5.59 percent.