The eastern market indicator managed to climb a further seven cents last week, closing trade at 846 cents.

Fine wools still appear to be struggling in comparison to medium and broad wools, notably in the north on Wednesday. Fine wools eased generally 10 to 20 cents, but did claw back five to 10 cents the following day.

Medium through to coarse wools were also softer on Wednesday, but to a lesser extent, and much of the losses were recovered during Thursday’s sale. The NMI eased six cents followed by a five-cent lift to close the week just one cent softer at 865 cents.

Melbourne was host to wool sales for three days, with Tuesday starting the week softer. Fine wools eased generally 10 to 15 cents, with most other micron categories up to 10 cents softer or unchanged.

Wednesday and Thursday were more positive. Coarse wools were unchanged on Wednesday while the rest of the market gained five to 15 cents, before all micron categories gained by a similar amount on Thursday. The SMI gained eight and nine cents respectively after initially easing five cents on Tuesday, and closed the week at 829 cents.

Wednesday’s Fremantle wool auctions saw the western market indicator lift 13 cents to 835 cents. The 18.5-micron categories were three cents softer, while all other micron categories gained within the range of eight to 17 cents.

Major auction buyers for the week were Techwool Trading (4365 bales), Queensland Cotton (4236 bales) and ABB.