Archived Summaries
Monday 20 August 2012
Market Close
A combination of mid-range storage demand and increased gas-fired power generation saw forecast demand for Monday move to 191 MCM, its highest level for the month so far, while forecast deliveries were running at just 167 MCM. A problem with the National Grid website meant that no supply-demand updates were available after 9am and the prompt market, which opened sharply higher on the day, continued to strengthen amid the uncertainty before correcting downwards in the last hour of trading. The spot price gained 5.00p intra-day but finished at 51.80p, up just 0.30p on Friday's closing price. Day ahead gained 0.55p while remaining prompt prices were up by between 1.50p and 2.50p. On the futures market, contracts for September and the front winter months were all up by over a penny in early trading but fell back slightly later in the day as the supply issues on the day were seen as temporary and the oil market, which had seen intra-day gains of up to a dollar, fell off later in the day. Crude oil futures fell off amid uncertainty about euro-zone actions to strengthen struggling economies and Brent crude settled fractionally down on Friday's closing level at $113.70.
