The carbon market had an interesting trading session on Tuesday and many multi-month records were set. The skyrocketing buying demand right after the end of yesterday’s session triggered concerns over another wave of speculative trading.

The sale for 3,01 million allowances on behalf of 25 EU member states cleared at €59,14. The closing price was €1,38 above the secondary market at that moment and €7,38 more than the price recorded at the auction held on Monday.

Furthermore, the cover ratio of 1,84 could be considered a modest one despite being slightly above this year’s daily average of 1,69. It is worth mentioning that there were just 9 successful bidders, the second-lowest number this year.

The number is also half the year’s average of 18 and in clear contrast with 27 bidders from Monday. We can easily conclude that a handful of powerful players managed to influence the market.

“The recent price fall has attracted the interest of speculative buyers and this, combined with bullish gas and coal, has led to an uptrend,” noted Danish trader Energi Danmark in a note published this morning. Gas prices posted a modest increase of just 2,17% compared to the 6,15% rise in carbon prices while coal rose in line with gas.

Shortly after the auction ended, the EUA Dec ’24 traded as high as €61,39, a level last seen on 8 February before closing at €60,54 posting an impressive daily gain of €3,51, the largest since December 20.

Furthermore, trading activity was intense with volume reaching 59,6 million allowances, a level last seen two years ago. On 2 March 2022, around 78,5 million allowances were sold amid rising uncertainty following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.