A softer rand supported wool prices at this week's sale and the Cape Wools Merino indicator gained 0.6% to close at R101,79/kg (clean).
This is a 21% improvement on the same sale last season and up 10.6% on the opening level.
The rand came off its stronger levels of the past week, trading at R7.59 against the US dollar, which was 2.3% devaluation on last week's average rate. At R9,97, the rand was a marginal 0.2% down against the euro.
It was a large offering of 13 955 bales and a high sales percentage of 98% was achieved. This probably is as a result of buyers stocking up since next week's offering will be considerably smaller; while there will be no sale in the week of 19 March due to a public holiday.
Major buyers were Standard Wool SA (4 995 bales), Modiano SA (2 641 bales), Stucken & Co (2 231 bales) and Lempriere SA (1 902 bales).
Prices for long fleeces were up across the board, but the finer micron ranges performed better it this week's sale, gaining up to 3%.
The average clean price for the different categories good top-making (MF5), long fleeces were as follows: 19 microns were up 0.7% at R114,46/kg, 19,5 microns were 33% dearer at R110,97/kg, 20 microns gained by 1.8% to R108,89/kg, 20,5 microns were 2.6% dearer at R107,35/kg; 21 microns strengthened by 2.4% to close at R106,09/kg, 21,5 microns were up 0.7% at R105,23/kg and 22 microns rose by 0.8% to R103,68/kg.
Approximately 7,000 bales will be on offer at next week's sale.