558 Mton allowances traded in May

May was the second busiest month to date for trading EUAs amid increased price volatility. Excluding options, around 558 million EU allowances (EUAs) changed hands across all platforms last month, second only to April, when 590 million were traded.
Around 92.5 per cent of the volume traded was on the futures market, with spot accounting for the remaining 7.5 per cent. Seventy-two per cent of the volume was traded directly on screen with the remaining 28 per cent cleared. The figures were compiled with data from exchanges Bluenext, EEX, ECX and Nord Pool.
Price volatility was the main catalyst as the bull run seen in April was extended into the first week of May, with the December 2010 bellwether contract climbing to a high of €16.73. However, prices collapsed to €14.33 following concerns over sovereign debt.
With more trading days in May, average daily volume was 2.59 billion compared with 2.95 billion in April. May’s volume takes the total number of allowances traded so far in the market to 2.26 billion, down 100 million year-on-year (Source Reuters Pointcarbon)