EUAs dipped on Thursday afternoon on selling pressure amid light volumes, but failed to breach key technical levels that have provided support this week.

The benchmark Dec-15 futures ended down 9 cents at €7.07, on light volume of around 8 million units traded on ICE Futures Europe.

After hitting a session high of €7.18 shortly after this morning’s EU permit auction, the contract held in a tight range until just after 1400 GMT.

Traders said a few sellers then tried to push the contract lower, but that buyers countered around €7.05-7.09, a technical support level near the 50- and 100-day moving averages that has been tested repeatedly this week.

“Good to see support at those levels, which is helping us remain stuck between €7.10 and €7.20,” one trader said.

“Loads of Europeans are off this week so it’s very quiet. Next week should be better,” he added, referring to this week’s Easter holidays.

European coal prices rose by around 1% on Thursday, putting downward pressure on German dark spreads. German baseload power edged higher was UK gas was mixed across the board.

CER prices jumped in light volume on ICE. The Dec-15 futures soared by 5 cents or 11% to close at 50 cents each, with 685,000 units changing hands over ICE’s screen contract.

By Mike Szabo – mike@carbon-pulse.com