Despite nearly 50,000 bales being offered for the last sale before the annual mid-year recess, the Australian wool market defied the odds and endured the heavy load with the AWEX eastern market indicator experiencing minimal movement.
The EMI gathered eight cents to finish the first half of the calendar year selling season at 1428 cents per kilogram, clean.
In US dollar terms the EMI rose by 16c to finish at 1066c/kg.
But it was the west who out-performed their eastern cousins with the Western Market Indicator (WMI) lifting by 20c to finish at 1462c/kg.
According to market reports buyer sentiment was strong from the onset, but it was the crossbreds that were the star performers, picking up all of last week's fall to post gains of 24 to 60c, helping to push the crossbred micron price guides (MPGs) into positive territory for the season.
"An aggressive purchasing strategy was witnessed from Europe's largest top-maker within the crossbred sector resulting in gains of 6 to 9pc for all wools 26 to 30 micron," AWI's market spokesperson said.
"The 32 micron wools gained 15pc but this was on very limited quantity. This single buyer took over 32pc of crossbred wool type sold with their nearest competition arising from a Chinese indent and local exporters who took 11pc or less."
At the end of the series, of the 49,003 bales offered, 42,441 bales sold due to a pass in rate of 13.4pc.
The first two weeks of the 2021/22 season has seen on average just under 10,000 bales per week more sold compared to last year.
With two large offering to start the season, compared to the previous season there has been 34,180 more bales offered, an increase of 51.7pc.
Again, it was the medium microns that generally outperformed the finer end of the wool clip.
The market for 19 to 20-micron showed slight improvement, however other microns all eased compared to the previous week, with the 16.5-micron most impacted dropping 83c
Cardings moved up 11c in Melbourne but fell by 11c in Sydney with Fremantle adding 2c for the week.
Next week the annual three-week mid-year recess begins.
Sales will resume in the week beginning Monday August 9.
After a noteworthy price of 8100c was achieved in the previous series, the highest in over three years, that record seasonal price has already been broken, not once but twice.
This week a 12.7-micron line of Merino fleece and a 12.6-micron line of Merino necks both sold for 9000c, this was the highest greasy sold price in over six years.
