The sale started off strongly at the single-centre Melbourne sale on Tuesday, adding to the rises from the previous week.

The finer microns outperformed the rest of the market, jumping by 40 to 50 cents.

However, there were softening signals showing in the broader microns where prices eased back slightly.

Wednesday saw a further strengthening when Sydney and Fremantle came into the mix and pushed the eastern market indicator to a record high.

Melbourne lost more ground in the broader microns with a five cent dip, although the ultrafine microns sustained further increases.

The rise in price of the finer microns and the falls in price of the medium and broad microns has seen the price differentials stretch out to more traditional levels.

Currently the gap between 18 to 21 micron is out to over 400 cents.

Although the Southern and Northern indicators rose for the week, the Western indicator fell by 22 cents.

Selling last on Thursday a predominately medium to broad offering continued to deteriorate as the sale progressed pushing some microns down by over 40 cents.

In the final hour of selling there was evidence of a true falling market.

The skirting market has again mirrored the fleece market with the finer microns attracting excellent buyer support and recording increases in some fine microns of over 100 cents, while the medium to broad microns managed to just hold their ground.

The crossbred market continues to struggle compared to the merino sector.

Prices were five to 40 cents lower than last week.

All carding indicators rose again this week, pushing carding indicators in all three centres further into record territory.