The latest Commitment of Traders (CoT) report from the ICE platform, released this week, indicates that investment funds have continued to increase their net long positions (the difference between long and short positions) for the second consecutive week.

According to market data as of last Friday, net long positions rose by a further 3.3 million allowances compared with the previous week, bringing the total to 62.2 million allowances, the highest level in four months.

The data also indicate that speculative traders increased their long positions by 2.6 million allowances, bringing the total to 79 million allowances, the highest since late March. Meanwhile, short positions fell slightly, dropping by 0.6 million allowances to just 16.8 million allowances, a multi-year low in bearish positioning.

With the European Commission’s long-awaited proposal to revise the EU ETS now expected on 17 July, two days later than the originally planned 15 July release, investors appear increasingly comfortable with the market outlook.

“Investors have become increasingly comfortable rebuilding long exposure as regulatory concerns have eased and prices have stabilised,” noted BBVA analysts in their weekly report published on Monday.