Financial Notes
" SAFETY FIRST " MARKETS.
WE are now practically at the peak of the holiday season, and that circumstance is plainly reflected in the markets for public securities where dealings are of a most restricted character. High-class investment stocks, however, continue to be well maintained, benefiting, as they do, by the compara- tive absence of new capital issues of the trustee type, while the lack of confidence which keeps the public from many departments of the Stock Exchange tends, together with the cheapness of money, more or less to drive available investment resources into gilt-edged stocks. The continued dullness of Wall Street prevents any recovery in the market for Inter- national Industrial shares, and during the past week Oil shares have been depressed on rumours, unconfirmed up to the time of writing, of some possible reduction in the Shell Union dividend. Home Rails continue to be one of the most depressed markets in the House, and, indeed, speaking generally, it may be said that all securities in any way affected by industrial conditions are under the influence of the con- tinued depression in trade.
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HOME RAILS WEAK.
One of the regrettable features of the stock markets is the continued depression in the Home Railway section, and some of the leading stocks, and notably London, Mid- land and Scottish Ordinary, have established fresh low records. The general depression is, of course, accentuated by the dullness of trade of which the growing figures of unemploy- ment are one of the many visible tokens, while the weekly traffic returns continue to be of a disquieting character. More- over, the anxiety concerning the railway_ outlook generally is expressed quite as much by the depreciation in prior charge stocks as by the slump in the Ordinary stocks, for there would seem to be a considerable significance in the fact that the Preference stocks of the London, Midland and Scottish Rail- way, for example, should be giving a yield of something like 6/ per cent., notwithstanding the ease in money and the general strength of gilt-edged securities.
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WARINGS•
It is possible that before these notes appear in print the Annual Report and Accounts of Waring and GiLlow, which are considerably overdue, will have been published, and, in view of the official assurances given, as recently as June as to the profits and maintenance of the dividend on the Ordinary Shares, it is scarcely surprising that the sudden announcement of the deferment of the payment of the dividend on the Preference Shares has occasioned considerable anxiety in the market. At one time this year the Ordinary Shares were up to 28s., but recently fell to a merely nominal quotation of 4s., though there has since been a recovery to 5s. 6d., as the market cannot believe that the Report will fail to show that at least a substantial profit has been earned, the profit for the previous year having been as much as £282,000.
A. W. E.
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