FINANCE AND INVESTMENT
By CUSTOS
THESE are still overflow markets. It is now plain enough that a much larger slice of the £350,000,000 of Conversion 41- per cent. loan than most of us estimated was held by the general investing public. Selling of this stock by trustees has been really substantial, and a correspondingly large volume of money has been seeking investment in other direc- tions. This explains the keen demand for Colonial stocks and all sorts of good prior charges which, as usual, has revealed a shortage of supplies and sent prices up quite sharply. When the Government takes advantage of a favour- able technical position and psychological environment to give prices an upward twist who can complain? I am convinced that the line on which the gilt-edged market has now estab- lished itself, viz., a 31 per cent. basis for long-dated stocks, can be held and that in anything like reasonable conditions the weight of money can be relied on to push prices still higher. * *
Previous page
