The latest fall follows on from a 5c/kg fall in Melbourne yesterday, and last week's distrastrous trading, in which the wool market suffered its third biggest fall since the end of the Reserve Price Scheme with a loss of 8.9pc.

And the plummetting Australian dollar has failed to revive fortune's.

According to AWEX figures, the currency was yesterday trading at US60.85 cents, but this was not enough to prevent a 10c/kg drop in the southern indicator at yesterday's sale in Melbourne.

But such is the volatility in the currency market at the moment that AWEX today quoted the dollar as trading at US63.75c.

AWEX reports wool prices lost ground at sales in all three centres today.

In the south the indicator lost 2c/kg on the back of yesterday's 10c loss to now stand at 724c/kg.

In the north the market lost 24c/kg to stand at 773c/kg, and in the west the indicator lost 12c to stand at 717c/kg.

Again the finer end of the market suffered the biggest falls, with the northern 17 micron indicator losing 69c/kg.

In an indication of the unviability of such prices for growers, some 21.2pc of today's offering of 16,141 bales was passed in.

Even so, this was an improvement on the one in three bales that were passed in last week.