Market Comments (03/09/10): Firm gas and carbon supported an upturn in curve contracts prior to yesterday’s close. The prompt saw a moderate increase after a weak start to the session, opening at £0.25/MWh less than Wednesday’s closing assessment. This increase was produced despite a soft gas prompt for the second successive day. Month-ahead contracts first traded flat to Wednesday’s closing price and afterwards traded in a very tight £41.70-41.80/MWh range until late afternoon. The forward month baseload price was then lifted to £42.00/MWh as a bullish sentiment took hold of the curve after carbon strengthened and sparked trades on the NBP from continental partners. Subsequently October ’10 baseload closed at £42.17/MWh making it yesterday’s most liquid curve contract. The power system was again comfortably long for the session. A week ahead daily supply surplus of 10.0GW is expected by NationalGrid and average demand is set at 39.6GW.

Market Comments (03/09/10): Curve contracts pushed up early afternoon on Thursday having been relatively benign before this point. This followed a similar pattern to Wednesday where prices moved up later in the session. However there was little change to fundamentals to explain such movements. Gains were fairly consistent across the board on the curve, front month Oct 10 increasing by 0.54p/th. Winter 10 increased by 0.56p/th to close at 48.53p/th, and it traded at an intraday high of 48.70p/th. The supply situation was positive yesterday as the system coped well with demand levels of around 230mcm. Deliveries from South Hook were strong reaching over 45mcm during the session and moving up to above 60mcm after the close. Langeled flows were steady at around 17mcm while medium range withdrawals from Aldbrough were also called upon to bolster supply. The Day Ahead contract closed relatively flat at 43.03p/th. Currently demand is down to 216mcm and the system is 11mcm long.