12 NOVEMBER 1937, Page 40

OVER 5 PER CENT.

If our thesis is correct that interest rates are likely to remain low and internal trade is not likely to suffer any really severe recession, it follows that industrial preference shares should continue to provide a sound field for investment. I mean prefer- ence shares of recovering companies, et hoc genus omne, whose dividends could become endangered by a sharp setback in industrial profits, but whose prices and yields are fully adjusted to this remote risk. As I have consistently stressed in these notes, a yield of 5 per cent. cannot be obtained along with an equal degree of safety as one expects with shares or stock yielding 4 per cent. or less, but if one is discriminating, it is possible, in this field, to get good value for money. I would include any of the following shares in a well-spread preference list : DiVidend cover (Times) • Current_ Price Yield £ s. d.

2

24/- 5 8 4 3 32/71 - 4 5 Ki 3 31/- 4 Io 4 51 23/6 4 5 aJ 6 £r 13 3 4t3 7 4 fo 7

21

12

5 17 .o 41 33,9 5 a •0

21

41/191 5 19 0 on an investment divided Imperial Smelting 61 p.c... Lever Bros. 7 p.c. Lewis's Investment Trust Ley's Foundries 5 p.c. ..

Borax 51 p.c. (£5).. British Ropes 6 p.c. (to;L) Debenhams 7 p.c. (to/) Hield Bros. 71 p.c... J. Sears 121 p.c. ..

Just over 5 per cent. is obtainable evenly over these nine shares.

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