Finance—Public & Private

Is Trade Reviving ?

THE present year has witnessed two distinct revivals in public securities.- Quite recently I referred in these columns to the great appreciation which had taken place in British Funds and kindred securities since the beginning of the year, the advance receiving its final impetus from the War Loan conversion operation announced on the last day of June, and, up to the present, high water mark for these stocks was touched towards the end of July. There is no doubt that the almost spectacular success which attended the conversion of our 5 per cent. War Debt had a powerful influence upon almost every centre and was probably not without its effect in stimulating the revival of securities on the other side of the Atlantic. At all events, there was an intimate connexion between the two movements in the sense that many of those who had secured large profits here in July out of the rise in British Government stocks reinvested a portion of their profits in American securities, with the result that an upward movement which had already shown signs of starting received a great impetus, and, as so frequently happens when one financial centre revives, there were reactions here producing gains in market prices of the more speculative securities which in some directions even eclipsed those which had previously taken place in gilt-edged stocks. Here, for example, is a list of a few American securities and also of the semi-speculative shares dealt in both in this market and internationally, comparison being made between the prices current on September 4th and those prevailing at the end of July.

Price. Price.

Stock. July 30th. Sept. 5th. Rise.

Atchison T.R.R. x ..

504 891 SO Illinois Cent. R.R. 141 354 21 New York Cent. R.R. 261 441 18 Pennsylvania R.R. 171 321 15 Southern Pacific R.R... 194 421 23 Union Pacific R.R. 704 1171 47 International Holdings $4 $2*

U.S. Stool Corn. $404 $741 $344 Eastman-Kodak Co. Corn. .. $64 $861 $22 International Nickel 84 1611

81

Celanese Corpn. 15/0 65/0

Solo

Ford Motors .. 20/74 27/6 6/104 Cable and Wireless 51% Pf... 591 71

Austin Motor Ord. .. 27/9 33/3

5/6 N.C. Metals .. 8/9 20/0

11/3 Anglo-Persian Oil 14 24

Royal Dutch .. 15* 20* 4t Shell Transport 2* 244

Dunlop Rubber 11/10f 18/0 6/it Imperial Chemicals 16/104 19/71 29 Unilevers 28/9 33/6 4/0 Brit. Celanese Ord. 6/0 11/6 5/6 Canadian Celanese 17/6 56/3 38/9 Courtaulds 27/0 35/6 8/6 English Sewing Cotton 34/0 38/9 4/9 Anglo-Dutch Rbr. 8/0 12/9 4:0 Kuala Lumpur Rbr. 20/0 26/3 6/3 Central Mining & Invest. 104 114

De Beers Cons. Dfd. 3* 5

1 4

Chartered 17/3 21/9 4/6 Cons. Goldfields of S. Africa .. 25/74 33/11 7/6 Rio Tinto . 141 201 64