Financial Notes
THE STATE OF MARKETS.
MARKETS continue to present the spectacle of firm prices for gilt-edged stocks and an excellent response from the investing public for all well-secured new issues of a strictly investment character which are offered, as witness the quick closing last week of the lists for the Niger issue, while on Monday the Johannesburg Loan and the offer of Preference Shares of Ilford, Ltd., were quickly closed. General markets, however, have been depressed, with further falls in Argentine Railway stocks, and the weakness of Peruvian Corporation stocks and Cable and Wireless issues has attracted some attention. The fall in Peruvian stocks is due to the decline in railway receipts and there has also been some talk of exchange difficulties but these appear to have been exaggerated. The weakness in Cable and Wireless issues is due to the expectation that the showing to be made by the company's accounts for the first year of its working will fall short of anticipations. Undoubtedly the capitalization of the merger included a substantial sum in respect of prospects, while the general depression in world trade has post- poned the expected expansion of earning power so that the market has modified its anticipations with regard to the probable dividend on the " A " stock from about 5 per cent. to between 2 and 3 per cent. Royal Mail securities have been uncertain again in advance of the annual report. The fall in basic conunodities continues, rubber, tin, and silver all being at fresh low levels, and speculative activity in the Stock Exchange has contracted to very small dimensions.
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