Spot NZUs closed Friday at NZ$6.52, coming down from highs of NZ$6.70 earlier in the week as buyers took a breather from recent gains, market participants said.

The spot contract traded in a NZ$6.55-6.70 range throughout the week, the same as last week’s levels, before dropping to NZ$6.52 on OM Financial’s CommTrade just before the market closed.

“The market has pulled back a bit this week. It is just easing back as the buyers stop paying the offer. Most trades this week have been initiated by the sell side,” one broker told Carbon Pulse.

“It is just sentiment. Traders are pausing after the big push higher,” he said.

“I think it is just plain more sellers coming in,” one trader said. “Some may be getting allocated units for forestry or other purposes and just selling.”

NZUs have been making steady gains recently, causing some market participants to speculate that the NZ$7 barrier might be breached for the first time since April 2012, but the market appeared to have run out of steam, at least temporarily.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw it dip a little more,” the broker said.

By Stian Reklev – stian@carbon-pulse.com