THE wool market traded slightly lower at the latest auction and the Cape Wools Merino Indicator decreased by 0,7% and 132 points to close at R184,24 (clean).
The Cape Wools All Wools Indicator lost 0,4%.
According to Louis de Beer, CEO of Cape Wools, the wool market continued its sterling performance and capitalised on the good demand for quality long and fine wool.
“Prices were marginally softer and the finer microns lost some of their recent gains.
“The US dollar traded sideways to the rand and had little influence on the wool market.
“As was expected the auction was small and thus supply constraint concerns remained.
“Competition between buyers was good with Standard Wool buying the most bales at auction,” he said.
The rand stood at R11,87 to the US dollar and R14,77 to the euro.
The rand was 1,0% stronger against the US dollar and 0,1% stronger against the euro, compared with the average rate at the previous sale.
De Beer added that the offering comprised 5 914 bales of which 98% was sold.
Major traders were Standard Wool SA (1 605), Tianyu SA (1 248), Modiano (1 244) and Lempriere SA (774).
The average clean prices for the selection within the different micron categories for good top-making (MF5), long fleeces were as follows: 18,0 microns decreased 3,7% to close at R216,71/kg; 18,5 microns moved 3,6% down to close at R211,15/kg; 19 microns lost 2,8% to close at R200,14/kg and 19,5 microns weakened by 1,5% to close at R191,42/kg.
De Beer said 20 microns was 1,4% weaker to close at R181,61/kg, 20,5 microns lost 0,4% to close at R175,23/kg, 21,0 microns lost 0,9% to close at R168,58/kg, 21,5 microns decreased by 0,6% to close at R164,47/kg, 22 microns fell 0,2% to close at R165,47/kg and 22,5 microns declined by 0,1% to close at R160,65/kg.