'Portfolio
Buying Slater Walker
Nephew Wilde
"-Royal wedding, balance of payments deficit, interest rates hike ... It's more like a bloody funeral." So ran the headline of the Morning Star last Wednesday. And though the Anne and Mark merger did steal the limelight, now viewed in a mood of more sober reflection it does look as though the country is heading fast on a disaster course. No wonder that the foresighted Mr James Slater is in the US shopping around for companies there, and because of his timely appraisal of the UK market, his coffers are full. That is why this week lam buying Slater Walker Securities which is standing well below the year's high of 284p. I am convinced that the company will weather the current wave of economic uncertainty better than most.
As for my other stocks, even the shares picked as potential 'hedges' against the worst effects of the oil crisis are looking sickly. — thus called in my broker I thus called in my broker Wotherspool to review my portfolio and make whatever sales he felt appropriate. Now oddly enough he was disinclined to take' any drastic measures. " There's bound to be a rally from these levels, old boy," was his comment. As a result the only shares leaving the lists are Dowty and AAH.
Frankly I do not harbour much hope for my portfolio's performance over the next few months and in some ways I am tempted to sell completely and reinvest in short-dated gilts, such as Treasury 61 per cent, now yielding 121 per cent and redeemable at par in 1976. If I had lost all confidence in equities then this would undoubtedly be the best course of action to follow.
Wotherspool, appreciating tne frustration of an investor such as myself has even been trying to tempt me to look at the commodity market. His view is that just as the oil exporting countries have ganged up together, so other. producing countries will do the same with their commodities. My broker personally likes rubber which is currently benefiting from the difficulties being faced by synthetic products whose raw materials are derived from oil. If I had more courage and the loose -cash this looks one of the better speculations in these troubled times.
Previous page
