TRADE REVIEW

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XLVI, Issue 10670, 15 February 1926, Page 5

TRADE REVIEW

STOCK EXCHANGE QUIET.

OPTIMISM IN WOOL TRADE.

FACTORS FOR CONFIDENCE.

(Per Press Association—Copyright.) (Received This Day, 8.5 a.m.) LONDON, February 13.

. The Stock Exchange is in the Dolddrums again, and business in the speculative department has been so slack that some members complain that they are not doing enough to pay office expenses. There has "been a considerable amount of forced liquidation, which began in the oil section and spread to other markets. There was only one actual failure—an unimportant one—but it produced a feeling of uneasiness which proved sufficient to check enterprise in any speculative shares. The weakest features have been home railways, rubbers, oils and textiles. The dullness spread to gilt edged securities, which have been slightly easier but recovered yesterday on improved conditions in the money market. One cause of the dullness in gilt edged has been the competition of new issues, present and future, colonials have been dull, with occasional declines, the market being affected by anticipation/ of fresh borrowing. New South Wales is mentioned as the first comer, and the issue may be made at an early date, but apparently the amount is not yet settled, although some newspapers say it will be £3,500,000, five per cent issue. A gratifying indication of Britain's 'improving trade was furnished by the chairman of Lloyds' Bank ait a recent meeting. He said analysis of new loans to the bank's customers between June, 1924, and June, 1925, showed ai total of £44,000,000, granted to every kind of industry composed of 32 different varieties. Over £41,000,000 were granted for the purpose of financing extended trade, and only £2,800,000 to companies or individuals requiring assistance to tide them over bad times or to cover trading losses. Commenting on the wool situation at the close of the first London series, a well-known authority strikes at optimistic note. He says that general caution and strict hand-to-mouth trading at the reasonable level at which the raw material has now arrived, with the small .compass of stocks in consuming centres, both in the raw and the manufactured article, are all facts which not only precede, but present, the early approach of confidence and revival .in -business prospects. The Australian and New Zealand apple season has been considerably improved by the publication of the Minister of Health's letter cabled yesterday regarding the sale of arsenic, for thu numerous- recent prosecutions for olie sale of arsenated apples had caused something like a panic.among retailers, which had been accentuated by the fact that one fruiterer, owning numerous shops in London, % had been threatened . with action for damage by a woman who asserted that she suffered arsenical poisoning as a result of eating apples purchased at one of his shops. Reports from all parts of the country indicate serious falling off in the sales of apples since these prosecu- . biens have been instituted. It is even : said that some fruiterers seriously contemplated stopping the sale of apples at their shops.. Now, however, that the Ministry <of Health has .issued a reas-i suring announcement retailers are likeiy to take heart ■a-gain and the demand lor apples should improve materially. One effect of the arsenic scare has been to check direct purchases by British importers who are unwilling to take any .risk. It is .also said that several purchases by German firms which were under negotiation have fallen through, but .this ;appears duo, not to the arsenic scare, but to'financial conditions in Germany, making it impossible for the would-be buyers to put up the necessary credits. In the meantime, importers and distributors here are doing their utmost to push sales, and an "lilt More Fruit" advertising campaign, organised by the Fruit Trades Federation, which achieved much success in the last two seasons, is being carried on even more assiduously