THE MONEY MARKET

Hokitika Guardian, 25 July 1923, Page 4

THE MONEY MARKET

A GKN'KRAI/ IMPROVEMENT. 1 I.ONDOX, July 21. ; Tlie Stock Exchange recovered quickly from tlie depression wliicli followed rile ndvniice of tlie bank rate, and with monetary conditions easy. giltedged securities have shown considerable strength, and prices have improved all round. Outside the gilt-edged market there has not been much activity, and. as the holiday season approaches its height there is not much prospect of any increase in the volume of business, but i lie tone of the Stock Exchange generally is cheerful, add there is a distinct disposition to take a more hopeful view of tlie Ruhr and reparations out•look, in anticipation that the British leply to the (lerman .Vote will have vitisfai".ory results. The deckers' strike naturally has prevented Home railway steel:- p.i 1 1 h-ipa tino in the improvement. but it bad singularly little effect on industrials nemo all s. TUI-:’ C HARTLRED COAII’AXY. The British Government's award of £3.750,000 to the British South African Company recalls one of the greatest Stock Exchange disappointments of thirty years ago. There was a great boom in Chartered shares, as they were popularly called. ]'V>r a month or so tnoy rose steadily, all classes of the public investing in response to the late Cecil Rhodes's advice to “luiv them Tor your grandchildren.” The price rose to CD. and then .suddenly the , market collapsed, and the price fell to Cl. Recently these shares have been quoted at Os. but they have now recovered to lbs, in anticipation of a cash distiibntion, out of the Government's award. TRADE CHTI.OOK. The trade position in Great Britain is disappointing. A special report in the “Economist”

say-: “The volume cf trade continues on a large scale, which is very much better than at this time last year and is ne.ir the peak point reached this spring, but, unfortunately, current cruel s are not being replaced, and Ibe period ahead. Irr which industry has a-suied orders, i- rapidly shortening In sonic eases the end of tlie output is alarmingly near. Two features of special intere-t are. tn the one hand, the Bradford spinning industiy, which has been partieulaily bard bit by the low priies an! lack of any Continental demand, till the other hand the electrical engineering trade, is full up of orders.'’ IT.Ot'lt .MARKET. Marly in April. Australian Hour importers were greatly perturbed by the let omiueiidation of the agri ultural iriburi: I that imported Hour must l.e accompanied by 2b per cent if ofl'a's. The proposal met with much opp-sitiin and Finally. ll'e Government ah'iithmcrl it.

li was suggested then that the pi'oj o-al emanated I rom the Mnitetl Kingdom null,us, and this suggestion was fully ctmhrmcd by a speech of the ebairman aL a meeting ol the Associated l.inidcn Mb nr Al tilers. a holding company deriving it- income mainly from -hares in milling companies. lb" i Iminnaii said that the keenness of the competition which the milling compruie.- had to meet in she past year wa- unparalleled in the liistmy of the milling trade. The uilsiu i-fact cry conditim, of the trade wa- largely due to It', caii-cs: <l l tile large quantity

• iinporied Hour. (2l The large j surplus inparity of the mills in this i country. British millers, pat tieul. iTy [ in the I It:-, always lined keen ecm- ! p<-tii ion from foreign and i denial mil- | loro who were well tie>|u;.inted with t'e ! s.i iome til dumping. It was calculated : that the mill- in England ami Wale-, running normal hours, coni. l manufacture at lea-t from 2b to 30 per cent, more Hour than was required. equivalent to some million sacks a year. Tib remit;-;! iji mod. Hour heipg !'! below i' i join-. The -nuale-n .Rs,, wasalleeted by tin* decrease in I lie ( on. sumption, which was estimated to l.c ID per cent, below that of a decade ago. The nbandoiiiiienl of the wool sales is net regarded ns unfavourable for the trade, the general impte-siou being that a le-anaiigement cf the sale-, in commence on .'''eplember I. wili make for strength in the market, as the opinion is pretty general that values should improve especially in view of the large consumption on the Continent. Meanwhile Rra ill on I shows -light indications of recovery from tlie iceeiit acute depression. Vo increase in den.and is riebieeable. but tin* tone is rather better, and traders are inclined to take a more optimistic view of the future.