SKINFLINT'S CITY DIARY
A lot of City folk, who are in the business of persuading the rest of us to trust them with our savings, have been saying in the Sunday papers, making their wishes father to their thoughts, that the Financial Times index will be going over 400.
Maybe there will be a short-lived stock ex- change boom, but in the final analysis growth is not achieved by what amounts to those in the City taking in each other's wash- ing, whether in domestic moneylending at extortionate rates or popping inflated shares into friendly funds. The Chancellor's strat- egy for a consumer-led boom to capital growth has much to commend it (though I think it will hold much more) but it will be a long time before even these results filter through. I think a wise shareholder will look back and wish he had 'sold in May and gone away', particularly now that the un- productive short-term gains tax has been chucked out to the ill-concealed dismay of those who were able to say that these shares they were offered in takeover were worth more than cash which in the short term might have had to pay tax up to 80 per cent or more.
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