European carbon prices ended slightly lower on Wednesday, continuing to consolidate near the €5 mark following two months of declines.

The front-year EUA futures settled down 3 cents at €4.97 on moderate volume of 17.4 million units traded.

The benchmark contract oscillated in a €4.83-5.05 trading range, dipping to the day’s low following the morning’s Polish EUA auction and climbing back in the afternoon.

Prices have closed within 3 cents of €5 for the past four sessions, providing some calm to a market that has been rocked by heavy selling, which sent prices to a 22-month low of €4.62 twice last month.

“The market’s maintaining its composure very well considering the high amount of supply coming from auctions and free allocations,” one trader said.

“EUAs increasingly look like they’ve found a base.”

Poland sold 3.526 million spot EUAs for €4.80, a cent below market, in an auction that attracted bids totalling 6.5 million units.

Some market participants noted that the amount of allowances on offer was slightly higher than normal, and that bidding interest may have been lower due to a number of traders attending an Argus carbon market conference in Amsterdam on Wednesday and Thursday.

By Mike Szabo – mike@carbon-pulse.com