TRADE REVIEW.

Hokitika Guardian, 17 February 1926, Page 1

TRADE REVIEW.

STOCK EXCHANGE. LONDON, Feb. 13. The Stock Exchange is in the doldrums again and business in the speculative department has been so slack that- some members complain that the) are not doing enough to pay office expenses. There has been a considerable amount ol iorced liquidation, which began in the oil section, and spread to other markets. There was only one actual failure, an unimportant one, but it produced a feeling of uneasiness, which proved sufficient to check enterprise in any speculative .shares.

The weakest features have been Home railways, rubher.s, oils and textiles. The dullness spread to giltodgeds, which have been slightly easier! but recovered yesterday, on the improved conditions in the money mmket. One cause of the dullness in gilt-edgeds has been the competition of new issues, present and future. Colonials have been dull. with occasional declines. Hie market being alfeeied by anticipation ol 1 resh borrowing. New South (Vales is mcnI inned as the lirstconu'r. and an issue may lie made at an early date, but apparently the amount has not yet been settled, although some newspapers snv it will lie a £3,500,000 pi r cent, issue. TRADE IMPROVING. A gratifying indication of Britain’s improving trade v:i. furnished by the chairman of fjord's Bank, at a recent meeting. He said that analysis of new loans fo the bank’s customers between June, IOR 1 and June 1025. showed a total of £11.000,000 granted io every kind of industry, composed of 32 different varieties. Over Cll ,- 000.000 hail b<i'm granted for the purpnse of financing extended trade, and nulv £2,800.00(1 to companies or individuals requiring assistance to tide them over bad time l , or io cover trading losses. WOOL TRADE. Commenting on the wool situation at the dose nf the first London series, a well-knuwin authority strikes an optimistic note, lie sav.s that general ealitiion, strict hand-to-mouth trading, at the reasonable level at which raw material has now arrived, with the small compass of stocks in consuming centres, both in the raw material and maiiufnetlined article, are all facts which not only precede, hut also present the early approach of confidence. and a revival in business. APPLE PANTO ABATING.

Prospects for the Australian and New Zealand apple season have been considerably improved by the publication of the Ministry of Health’s letter regarding the sale of arsenic, for tlio numerous recent prosecutions for the ■sale of arsenated apples had caused something like a panic among retailers, which had been accentuated by the fact that one of the fruiteners owning numerous shops in London bad been threatened with action for damage by a woman, who assorted that she suffered arsenical poisoning as tlio result of eating apples purchased at one of Ids shops. Reports from all parts of thi? donntry indicate a serious falling off in the sales of apples since those prosecutions have been instituted. It is even said that some fruiterers have seriously (contemplated stopping tlio sale of apples at tlieir shops. Now, however, the Ministry of Health has issued a reassuring announcement, and retailers are likely to lake heart again, and the demand for apples should improve materially. One effect, of the arsenic scare has boon to cheek direct purchases by the. British importer, who

is unwilling to take any risk. It is also said that, several purchases by German firms, which vere muter negotiation. have fallen through. I nit, (his appears to lie duo not lo arsenic but in financial conditions in Germany making it impossible for would-be buyers to pul up the necessary credits. Tn the meantime importers and distributors here are doing their utmost, to push sales, and an “Eat More Fruit” advertising campaign, organised by the Fruit Trade Federation, which achieved much success in the last two seasons. is being carried on even more assiduously.