Financial Notes*

- REACTIONARY MARKETS. -

THERE has been a healthy pause in the speculative activity on the, Stock Exchange and the almost continuous upward movement in prices. How extensive has been the apprecia, Lion in public securities as a whole may be gathered from the- fact that the 365 representative securities selected by the Bankers' Magazine shows an aggregate appreciation during the current year of over £280,000,000, of which 1185,000,000 marks the appreciation in the variable dividend group, which; of course, includes the more speculative descriptions. Of recent months the outstanding feature has been the strength' of shares in _the Industrial section, and especially in a few particular groups such as Artificial Silk shares, Gramophone issues, and Tobacco shares. During the last fortnight some of these shares have established, practically, high records, and it may be interesting to show in the following table the highest quotations of a few representatiVe shares touched' during the fortnight ending November 1st and the quotations recorded in the morning newspapers of that day-a Stock

Fall from highest. -22s. 6d.

-it -4s. 9d. -7s. 3d.

-11s. &I. -7s. 9d. -2s. -2s. 6d. -1 -778.

From the foregoing it will be seen that the prices of these shares at the moment of writing show in some instances a very considerable fall from the highest. the more noteworthy being the drop in Celanese, Courtaulds, and Glanzstoff, while, although still very high when' compared with the quotations of a few months ago, Graphophone and Gramophone shares have also reacted considerably from the highest.

* * * * Exchange holiday : Celanese Courtaulds Allied News .. Crittall Glanzstoff Columbia Graphophone Gramophone ..

Imperial Tobacco .. Marconi ..

Swedish Match ..

Van den Bergh Ord. ..

Highest during fortnight. 100s.

73s. 6d.

Price Nov. 1st. 77s. 6d.

71,s 68s. 9d.

65s. 57s. 9d.

6 f 5# 146s. 6d. 135s.

166s. 6d. 158s. 9d.

102s. 100s.

30s. 27s. 6d.

20} 1811 70s. 63s.