EU carbon prices steady following sell-off

LONDON, June 23 (Reuters) - Benchmark European carbon futures CFI2Z9 were barely changed in early trade on Tuesday following a sell-off the previous day, down 5 cents at 12.90 euros ($17.88) a tonne at 0945 GMT.

The EU allowances (EUAs) for December delivery were down 0.4 percent on the European Climate Exchange. Spot contracts BNXCO2-2 were down 5 cents at 12.69 euros on the BlueNext exchange.

"We were down near 4 percent yesterday, the market's just taking a breather," one carbon trader.

Wall Street suffered its worst one-day loss in two months on Monday following a dire World Bank economic outlook. [.N]

Carbon prices have followed global stocks .WORLD with a daily correlation value of 0.54 in the past week, compared with a correlation of just 0.13 with oil CLc1, Reuters analysis shows.

That stocks correlation may remain until the end of the year, the trader added. Industrial companies are then likely to become more confident about selling their EUA surpluses.

A Chinese central bank official said on Tuesday that China's economy was headed in the right direction but the foundations were still not solid. [nLN705262] The MSCI index of global equities edged down 0.3 percent .WORLD.

U.S. oil CLc1 steepened previous losses down less than 1 percent at about $67 a barrel on Tuesday, after a fall of nearly 4 percent the previous day, on renewed worries over the uncertain outlook for major economies. [O/R]

German Calendar 2010 baseload power BY1DE-1Y traded at 50 euros, up from a closing bid on Monday of 49.60. July delivery natural gas GM2NBc1 gained 0.4 percent to 25.65 pence per therm.

Benchmark CERs CEREZ9 was down 1 cent at 11.15 euros per tonne.

Australia's parliament was set to delay this week any vote on the government's emissions trading scheme until August. In their current form the laws are likely to be rejected when vote on, which could result in an early election. [nSYD357842] (Reporting by Gerard Wynn, Editing by Sue Thomas)