AFTER rising at a steady pace for eight week, the wool market's dearer trend has come to an end.
The Eastern Market Indicator finished the week 11 cents a kilogram lower to close at 2016c/kg on Thursday.
This was also the first week-on-week loss for the 2019 calendar year.
Australian Wool Exchange market information manager, Lionel Plunkett, said the rally concluded last week at eight consecutive sales of increases, seven consecutive sales since the first sale of the year, the best start to a calendar year since 2006.
The Northern Market Indicator also slipped 11c/kg this week to 2063c/kg.
Much of the losses dragging down the northern indicator were for medium-micron wools.
At northern (Sydney) sales the 20-micron wools were about 33c/kg cheaper at 2357c/kg. However, this was generally still a good price for woolgrowers, as this micron wool was near record levels the week before.
Both 19- and 19.50-micron wool slipped 26c/kg to finished the week on 2396c/kg and 2378c/kg respectively.
"Last week’s price increases encouraged more sellers to the market, resulting in 48,948 bales on offer nationally, this was the third largest sale of the season," Mr Plunkett said.
The finer wools were generally 8c/kg to 12c/kg lower at Sydney sales.
The 17-microns averaged 2612c/kg, while the 18-micron indicator was on 2525c/kg.
Mr Plunkett said the crossbreds had mixed results, 28- and 30-micron wool dipped slightly below the records achieved last sale, while 26- and 32- managed 20c/kg increases.
"Next week quantities reduce slightly, currently there are 46,128 bales on offer in Sydney, Melbourne and Fremantle," he said.