European Union carbon dioxide permits jumped as banks and power utilities with shortages may have been “wrongfooted,” forcing them to buy, said a trader at First Climate.

EU allowances for December gained as much as 50 cents, or 3.8 percent, to 13.62 euros and were at 13.56 euros a metric ton as of 1:34 p.m. on London’s European Climate Exchange. They were yesterday near a three-month low of 12.79 euros on Sept. 24.

Some power stations and banks may be buying today because they wrongly guessed prices would fall further, Dennis Mignon, a trader with First Climate in Bad Vilbel, Germany, said today by telephone.

“They’ve been caught on the wrong foot because the market held around the 13 euro level,” Mignon said. Expected selling by industrial companies with spare permits has not occurred, he said.


Source: Bloomberg