Comment

The fine wool indicators went up in Sydney while they went down in Melbourne. This highlights the importance of the quality of the selection on the indicators. The offering of 18.5 micron and finer in Sydney was more suited to Italian weaver interests so attracted a different level of support. In this case, just to read the index values is misleading, you need to understand the offering as well. It was a very good market for 18.0 micron and finer. Buyers tended to focus more on the finer wool as they look better value in comparison. Unsure of what to buy, some traders, particularly the Chinese, seemed to favour what looked best value and the 19.5 / 21.0 usual types were too expensive following last week’s rally. There was little premium for the better types and they still seem best value to us. Overall it was a good result for the market while the Australian dollar improved against the USD on Thursday. The Fremantle sale seemed to over react on Wednesday so if firmed up a little more than the eastern markets later in the week.