The EMI on Thursday night closed this week unchanged compared with Wednesday's sale, at 873c/kg, completing a good two-day sale.

This week's strong recovery follows a poor start to the 2008-09 selling season last week, when wool lost 2.1pc.

That loss has now been regained, plus a little bit more, with

the sharply weaker $A since last week the main contributor to the upsurge.

The EMI on Thursday, although unchanged, compared with that of Wednesday when expressed in terms of our $A, actually rose when expressed in $US currency - up by US5c/kg, to US759c/kg.

This indicates that our main customers, who buy in $US, were willing to compete a little more strongly to get their wool.

Closing prices for the regional indicators at auction were:

• Northern indicator: Down by 7c/kg on Thursday, with the indicator closing on 904c/kg, finishing higher for the week.

• Southern indicator: Up by 7c/kg on Thursday, with the indicator closing at 848c/kg, and adding further to its Wednesday’s gains.

• Western indicator: Down by 5c/kg on Thursday, with the indicator closing on 844c/kg, but closing higher for the week.

A total of 44,500 bales was rostered for sale across the three main centres this week.

As a result of the stronger market, the pass-in rate dropped to 11pc.

Next week, 44,000 bales are rostered for sale nationally.