THE wool market continued its upward movement last week with the Western Market Indicator (WMI) finishing up 26 cents on the previous sale at 1031c/kg clean, the highest level since January 2008.
The offering of 52,290 bales Australia-wide was the largest since January, but it had no impact on prices.
The Eastern Market Indicator, however, gained more than the WMI, jumping 42c to finish at 1032c/kg - the largest gain in the Indicator since January.
In US dollar terms, the EMI closed at 1036c/kg, after the dollar peaked just below 102c before retreating to just above parity at the close of the sales.
It was marginally lower than the previous sale.
The rise last week in the WMI was the eighth consecutive rise since the market started to show upward movement in sale F14 in the second-last week in September.
The market has now risen 158c or 18 per cent from 873c/kg clean in sale F13 to last week's price of 1031c/kg.
Once again, the fine wool market continued to rally, with prices hitting an eight-year high, while the broader microns also rose.
The AWEX weekly market report for last week's sale quoted finer types continued to dominate, with an initial rise of 30c followed by a 20c rise on the second day.
It reported the medium to broader ranges also attracted good support but rose at more measured rates, closing 15c higher on each day, while Merino skirtings came under strong buying pressure, closing around 100c higher, particularly for those at the finer edge, which are beginning to narrow the gap against fleece types.
Based on last week's prices, the AWEX report is quoting gross returns to woolgrowers on a 185kg bale of $1980/bale for 17 micron, $1527/bale for 19 micron, $1222/bale for 21 micron, and $1101/bale for 23 micron.
This week's offering of 61,539 bales across the three selling centres will be the largest offering since January 2009.
