A BIG APPRECIATION.
At the end of the month_ it .will be possible:to milks something like an exhaustive examination of the general trend of securities during the- current year, but brief mention may already be made of the extent to which these expectations have beeri4ulfilled. Thus it- will be found from the valuations made each month - by the Bankers' Magazine that while over the entire list of 365 securities selected there is a small depreciation for the eleven months, the " Variable Dividend " list, which includes. the More s-pecidatoil ttes'crIptifins; hits =risen by nearly £100,000,000 ; investment stocks, on the other hand, having fallen by about that amount. Moreover, this appreciation in the speculative groups is all the more striking because it has occurred in face of a heavy .fall is Ordinary stocks of British Railways. At the moment of writing the investment markets are affected -by two entirely conflicting influences. On the one hand the usual reinvestment of a portion of the War Loan Dividends for £50,000,000 is favourably affecting the market ; while on the other hand apprehensions of a probable early rise in the Bank Rate is keeping away ordinary buyers. All_the same, the higher Bank Rate has been expected for some little time past, and it is quite possible that its effects— should the event occur—may have been anticipated. At all events, I think that, speaking broadly, it may be said that while the tendency is still for interest to gravitate to the speculative rather than to the investment markets, the latter should not be severely affected—unless, indeed, there should be failure on the part of the Govern- ment to economize in the National Expenditure.
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