isramart Carbon edges higher despite bearish sentiment

Isramart LLC news

Carbon prices edged higher by the end of Wednesday, although sentiment remained bearish.

By 17.30 CET, the 2009 EUA was trading at €13.37, up €0.20 on yesterday’s close.

Despite the rise, traders were generally bearish after seeing the benchmark carbon permit sink below €14 at the start of the week.

“We have traded sideways today more than anything,” said one source.

“Every bank in the market seemed to be selling carbon today, and one investment bank seemed to be buying it.”

Volumes were reasonable overall after some 13.35 million EUAs were cleared through the European Climate Exchange.

Another 10.7 million carbon contracts traded directly on exchanges, although there was a relatively thin volume of spot EUAs changing hands on Bluenext.

Just over 2.25 million spot contracts traded on the Paris-based exchange compared to a daily average of around 8.8 million since the start of May, and a peak of 19.2 million on 2 June.

Bluenext was closed for business on Monday and Tuesday to allow business practices to be changed to accommodate France exempting value-added tax from spot carbon in a bid to protect the bourse from potential fraud.

But there was no rush to trade spot contracts on the exchange today to catch up on the lost days of business this week.

The 2009 EUA first traded at €13.10 today, and reached a peak of €13.60 as July Brent crude oil prices surged past $71/bbl.

US stockpiles of crude oil dropped 4.38 million barrels to 361.6 million in the week ended 5 June, the US Energy Department said today.

But carbon quickly fell back to reaffirm the market has decoupled from crude oil recently.

In the CER market, the 2009 contract closed at €11.50, up €0.13 on the previous close.