EUAs posted slight daily gains in a late gas-fueled upward move

The power spot prices fell in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, pressured by forecasts of stronger wind and solar generation, and reached 125.50€/MWh on average, -8.10€/MWh day-on-day. Conversely, the colder weather expected in the upcoming hours supported the French power spot prices which rose by 14.99€/MWh to 165.57€/MWh due to the country’s more temperature sensitive power demand.

The EUAs overall traded rangebound yesterday between 61.34€/t and 62.30€/t. The carbon prices dropped late morning after the daily auction presented weak results (massive 72-cent discount to secondary market and very low 1.08 bid coverage) but the middle Bollinger band capped the losses and the EUAs quickly rebounded. Supported by new record-highs from the gas market amid tight winter supply concerns, the emissions prices eroded part of Tuesday losses in a late upward move that brought the benchmark contract to settle at 62.88€/t, +0.96€/t (+1.6%) day-on-day.

Meanwhile, the ICE’s Commitment of trader report published yesterday showed that the investment funds continue to increase their length, adding 9.11mt (+16.6%) to their net long position last week, with 35 new participants joining the market. The category now amounts to 337 market participants, a record so far and the largest one.

The power curve prices were rather mixed on Wednesday, the short term contracts posting losses but the longer-term contract rising alongside the gas market.