WEEKLY MARKET REPORT

Week Ending 27^th April, 2018

AWEX Northern Micron Indices Comparison

LEST WE FORGET

This week’s sale took on the unusual pattern of Tues/Thurs selling with the Anzac Day holiday in between, now widely regarded as our most important day of the year as more and more young people embrace the Anzac spirit and an ever increasing number of war-time stories emerge to re-inforce the significance of the day. Rumours of a solid market were confirmed on Tuesday as all sectors rallied as the AWEX EMI posted a 22 cent gain to a new high of 1847 to eclipse the previous record of 1834 at the end of February. The market may have suffered an Anzac day hangover on Thursday as the market for merino fleece types lost 5/15 cents in Sydney but a worrying 20 to 30 cents in the other 2 centres.  Despite the slight pull-back in the last session, the market still posted gains for all MPGs and the odd lot from Coonabarabran, Coolah and Gulgong with the “right specs” was 50 to 200 cents higher than their indicators.

Skirtings also benefitted from the renewed interest as, unlike their fleece counterparts, recorded rises over both days. The < 5% VM types up to 20 micron rose by 20/50 cents with burrier lots remaining rock solid all series. Cardings had a solid but unspectacular sale as most descriptions were quoted as firm to 20 cents higher than their previous values with a line of LKS from Wellington making an incredible 1050c (1630c clean). The revival of the Crossbred sector since Easter has been nothing short of spectacular with all microns adding 80 to 200 cents over the last 3 sales. The 130 cents jump for 25s in Melbourne last sale was outdone in Sydney with an incredible 149 cent climb this week as all other microns lifted by 30 to 90 cents.

The dramatic fall in the $A from just above 78 cents last Friday to 76 cents on Tuesday certainly helped the market in the opening session but couldn’t maintain the rise on Thursday even with a better FRX that has the $A at 77.75 cents. As stated last week the poorer selection of FLC  on offer is getting harder to average into orders as the high yielding and low VM types are becoming more scarce as just 37% of the FLC offering is below 1% VM compared to 50% 6 weeks ago. Also endangering the FLC prices as we move into the winter shearings is the lack of best topmaking style fleece - 17% back from 31% in the same time. Next week has 43,000 bales on offer and the cheaper markets in Melbourne/Fremantle could mean a steadier market all round.

                 Ag Concepts Fwd Prices as at 27 April, 2018

      Main Buyers (this week)