Total national wool auction listings fell last week as the Tasmanian Feature sale ceased.
Volumes were slightly boosted to 46,049 bales with the inclusion of a New Zealand offering of 1673 bales.
The Australian Wool Exchange Eastern Market Indicator (EMI) climbed 17 cents a kilogram on Tuesday, a further 23c/kg on Wednesday and another 3c/kg on Thursday.
The EMI closed the selling week at 1318c/kg, or US1022c/kg.
The auction pass in rate fell slightly to 10.2 per cent, which matched the lower wool offering and market demand.
Chinese buyers' appetite for wool was emphasised again last week, which increased buyer confidence and led to a bigger offering being rostered for this week.
The AuctionsPlus wool online offer board had a jump in activity last week and there were 1095 bales sold through the platform for the period.
Of this, 82 bales of 17-micron wool reached a top of 1490c/kg (greasy), or 1974c/kg (clean).
Lines of 20-micron wool sold strongly, and 283 bales cleared to a high of 1050c/kg (greasy), or 1408c/kg (clean).
The top priced lot that was sold online last week was a line of 13.5-micron wool that fetched 1900c/kg (greasy), or 2513c/kg dry.
This lot was branded "B in a Horseshoe" and had a vegetable matter of 0.4 per cent and staple length of 58 millimetres. It was offered by Australian Wool Network.
Looking ahead, there are 47,336 bales scheduled to go under the hammer across national auction selling centres this week.
The Chinese are returning to work after the country's Lunar New Year break and this will be a welcome move for Australian wool producers, as the market is expected to gain further.
With the national wool market continuing to strengthen, it will be interesting to see how the increasing value of the Australian Dollar affects pricing.
