The Australian Wool Exchange (AWEX) said its eastern market indicator (EMI) slid 20 cents to 791 cents a kg clean at sales in Sydney and Melbourne on Wednesday.
AWEX said its northern indicator (Sydney) fell 20 cents to 802 c/kg clean, while its southern indicator lost 22 cents to 780 c/kg clean.
There were no sales in Fremantle.
In Sydney, the offering was mainly good style with a large number of lots withdrawn prior to sale. In an otherwise soft market, 17-microns attracted reasonable support with selected lots trading at similar levels to last Thursday.
Lower styles were one percent cheaper. The bulk of the offering in the 18-23 micron range were generally between 20 and 30 cents cheaper with 40nkt types most affected
Prices in Melbourne flattened out after large early falls with some quality best style (40 nkt) being offered late in the afternoon. 18.5 microns and finer fell by 10 cents, while 20-21 microns fell by 15 cents with less effect occurring on best style or better lots. Most damage occurred in the 22-24 micron category as a predominantly good to average style offering saw the price fall by 30 cents over the sale.
Of the 18,759 bales offered nationally, 19 percent were passed in.