The wool market held up well at the first sale of the New Year and the Cape Wools Merino indicator softened by a marginal 1,4% to close the day at R115,67/kg (clean).

This is a 13,5% increase on the opening sale and is up almost 6,1% on the corresponding sale last year. The local market seemed to follow the international trend as the Australian market also decreased by 1,3%.

The rand at R10,85 traded 5,1% weaker against the dollar compared with last sale of 2013’s average rate. At R14,78 it had lost 4,1% on average against the euro.

The better style wools were much sought after during yesterday’s a uction and traders supported the 20 micron and finer types very well with the average price for good top making t ypes of 18 microns gaining 2,1%.

It was a fairly large offering of 13 146 bales of which 95% was so ld.

Major buyers were Standard Wool (3 716), Lempriere (3 458), Modian o (2 301) and Stucken & Co (1 415).

The average clean prices for the different categories good top -making (MF5), long fleeces were as follows: 18 microns were up by 2,1% to R131,95/kg, 19 microns gained 1,9% to R125,74/k g, 19,5 microns dropped 3,2% to close at R117,21/kg, 20 microns shed 3,4% at R114,50/kg, 20.5 microns were down by 3,8% at R114,16/kg and 21 microns dropped 5,0% to R113,90/kg.

The next sale is scheduled for 22 January where approximately 16 5 00 bales will be on offer.