Market Notes
By CUSTOS
MRS boom in the gilt-edged market has re- ceived a check after a very considerable rise. War Loan has moved up to 52-& to yield 6.85 per
cent, which is an astonishing recovery from the 47.7 mark last month when it yielded 7.33 per cent. The lap' ran out last week on the Funding 6 per cent 1993 and the price jumped to nearly 88, which compares with 83.4 last month. The recent loan issues have been doing well. The New Zealand 7+ per cent stock 1983/86 issued at 98 is now 3+ premium and the ICI loan stock 61 premium. Some brokers feel that the pace has been too fast, seeing that although the rise in interest rates abroad has been checked there is no sign yet of cheaper and more plentiful money. By contrast with gilt-edged the market in gold shares has turned distinctly easier. This has been due partly to the realisation that a rise in the price of gold is no longer a near-term possibility, partly to the fear that sanctions will be applied to South Africa by the UN over Rhodesia. Incidentally. Rhodesian copper shares have fallen because out- ph. at the mines is to be cut by 25 per cent as a result of the coal shortage. Industrial equities are still under the cloud of industrial pessimism which the CBI survey is likely to deepen. There have been very few company reports to relieve the gloom. Market leaders like Marks, Plessey and Spillers have, in fact, disappointed their shareholders. At this season of the year the toy manufacturers are usually bought in antici- pation of another Christmas boom but this year there is no such prospect. The shares of this group have already fallen by nearly 30 per cent as compared with a general market fall of under 20 per cent. I am glad to report a rise in Acrow shares which followed on their good results and the announcement that the chairman, Mr Vigier, had paid the productivity bonus his workers had fully earned in spite of protests from Whitehall. A useful slogan to other industrial managements: `Be more Vigierlant.'
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