The Australian wool market experienced major movements this week pushing the Eastern Market Indicator (EMI) up 102 cents to close at 1219 cents per kilogram, clean. Dramatic increases were felt across all three centres on the Tuesday but they were brought back down to earth on the Wednesday when the Merino lots waned. But the 123c/kg or 11 per cent rise on Tuesday, which saw the EMI finish at 1240c/kg, clean, was the highest the EMI has been this current season. More extraordinarily, this was the second largest rise on recored for the EMI, only topped by the 130c gain the EMI recorded in September last year. AWEX senior market analyst, Lionel Plunkett, said from the opening lot on the first day, buyer sentiment was extremely positive. "It was immediately apparent that the market was heading rapidly higher," Mr Plunkett said. "By time the final hammer fell in the West, the individual Micron Price Guides (MPGs) across the country had risen by 110 to 153 cents. "But buyer sentiment cooled slightly on day two of auctions, resulting in the market losing some of the large gains enjoyed on the first." The MPGs fell by 23 to 99 cents. On the back of these losses the EMI dropped by 21 cents. But strong gains in the crossbreds prevented a larger fall. As the finer microns have risen at a greater rate than the broader ones, the price differentials between microns have stretched. In the first sale of the current season, the difference between the 18.0-micron MPGs and the 21.0-micron MPGs was 215c, the difference between the 18 and 21 micron MPGs has now increased to 388c. The crossbred sector recorded the largest rises, the 26 and 30 micron MPGs rose by 18pc. The 28 micron MPGs rose by 31pc. In the both the North and South this was the largest weekly rise for the 28 micron MPG on record. The pass-in-rate didn't stray either way, up by a tiny 0.3pc to finish on 4.7pc. Next week's national offering rises to 44,004.