A PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR.

Shannon News, 5 January 1926, Page 4

A PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR.

EXPERTS LOOK FORWARD TO TRADE REVIVAL. LONDON, January 2. The Stock Exchange closed the year on a cheerful note, there being a quietly optimistic tone in almost all markets. Gilt-edged showed firmness fill round; foreign bonds were mostly steady and home rails were well supported, owing to increased traffic receipts Industrials have been quiet, but there has' been considerable activity in oil shares, apparently due to recognition of the fact that the outlook for the oil industry has been steadily improving for some time. There is a general impression that confidence will be apparent when the markets reopen on Monday, and as one financial newspaper says: "On all hands: signs arc not lacking that activity may be expected throughout the Stock Exchange, for not since 1914 have conditions been so favourable to the investor." Another financial writer says: The danger of a further early rise in the Bank rate is regarded as having passed and the y-ar ends with a rise in sterling on the New-York market. It is certainly very encouraging, hence, gilt-edged stocks will probably be fairly maintained until the long-awaited trade revival shows signs of development." "" Capital Issues.

Details of capital issues of new monev in London during 1925 show an increase of nearly twenty-three millions over the 1924 total, the amount reaching £232,514,500. This increase is interesting, when It is recalled that the embargo on foreign borrowings meant that foreign governments floated no leans here in 1925, whereas they borrowed, forty millions in 1924 and the Dominions Government loans showed a decline of nearly twenty millions, compared ! with 1924. The increase In the total amount is caused by the British ■Government having raised nearly thirtv iriillions more than during the I previous year, and the numoer of 1 industrial and commercial issues, which amounted to 109 millions, compared with s-venty-one million in It's Going To Be Cold. Wool trade prospects are discussed in the annual reviews of the two leading selling brokers. The Charles Balme Company writes: "In France, the uncertainty of the future of the exchange is causing; traders to adopt a waiting policy. In Germany, the wool industry has not sufficient ! capital to finance its purchases and is finding : difficulty in raising credits, but it undoubtedly requires considerable supplies of raw material. Taking all circumstances into consideration, it seems probable that current prices will be maintained over the early part of the year, though the irregularity of the Continental dmand may cause fluctuations, but later, if France and Germany are enabled to resume operations on a large scale, there should be a more stable market and some recovery in prices." The Schwartzc, Buchanan Company writes: "The present fashion for women's wear materially reduces the consumption of wool. We must also Taking everything into consideration, btar in mind the extraordinary expansion of the production of artificial silk and the record cotton crop in America, as both these articles compete- to a certain extent with wool Fortunately, the present winter promises to be cold and this should stimulate the demand for heavy good?, unless there is a general revival of j we incline to the view that with wool ! on the present basis, there should not ! be much danger and there should be a reasonable prospect of the mainteni ance of prices, possibly with minor fluctuations, but not of any material improvement in the near future, conviction that more fruit was being distributed, not only by fruiterers, but also by grocers and new fruit Eat More Fruit. The "Eat More Fruit" slogan appears to be producing a satisfactory result. At a repent meeting of the Glasgow Retail Fruit Trade Association, the chairman expressed the which congratulates the growers and expresses the hopo that the satisfactory reason of 1925 will spur them on shops were springing up in every district of Glasgow. Other speakers corroborated this,' The excellence "-.of Australian sultanas is referred to in a review by a leading Liverpool dried fruit firm, to reach yet a higher state of perfection in crops and packing, which this year showed a welcome improvement in quality and grading.