30 JANUARY 1926, Page 34

FOREIGN LOANS.

These considerations in their turn have had all the greater effect upon the market for gilt-edged securities, first because apprehensions which had been entertained of adverse monetary, conditions had occasioned the creation of " bear " positions on the Stock Exchange and a very little amount of buying sufficed to occasion a material rise in stocks. To some extent, too, perhaps, the uncertainties in other directions may have tended to concentrate business upon the gilt-edged scrips, though the firmness is none the less striking in view of the fact that we have had new foreign loans like the Chilean while at the moment of writing rumours, which I believe to be well founded, are current as to one or two other important foreign loan issues in the not very distant future. As antici- pated, the Chilean Loan for 12,800,000 was a great success, being applied for some three or four times over, but it is evident that the premium hunters were largely in evidence and as a consequence the scrip has not, at present, risen above par. Home Railways at one time have shown marked depres- sion on apprehensions as to labour, but there has been some recovery on what is presumed to be the avoidance of a strike. In the new speculative markets, Rubber shares have displayed considerable resistance to the fall in the commodities, which in many quarters is thought to be overdone.