TRADE REVIEW.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 48, Issue 141, 26 March 1928, Page 5

TRADE REVIEW.

THE LONDON WOOL SALES.

NO SIGN OF WEAKNESS

(Per Press Association —Copy light.) LONDON, March 24.

The Stock Exchange has just completed. the settlement of what is generally accepted as one of the largest, if not the largest, account in its history. One financial newspaper says the clearing department dealt with 4,000,000 shares in Courtaulds, 7,000,000 in Mexican Eagles, in addition to millions of other popular shares. As brokers intimate that most of this business represents purchases that have actually been taken up by holders, it is difficult to surmise where all the money is coming from. Although it is known there had been considerable buying on American account, the proincipal activity has been in the more speculative shares, and the ordinary investment sections of the Stock Exchange have been more or less stagnant. Gilt-edgeds have been showing a dropping tendency, hut Colonials have been steady, and the new Commonwealth issue has been in such demand that the price has steadily improved. From . being quoted at five-eighths discount it is now only one-sixteenth discount. In connection with loans, it is interesting to note that the new volume of the Stock Exchange official intelligence, just issued, contains particulars of fifty-four new loans, for a total sum of £41.6,337,275, raised here by various Governments, municipalities and public bodies during the last twelve months.

Fruit Trade, i The Australian and New Zealand apple season will open on Monday, when cargoes by the Narkunda and Tainui will make their appearance at the Covent Garden and Monument sale rooms. The outlook does not seem any more favourable than it did a month ago, for the demand for apnles is still poor, and prices are low. The only hope is that Australian and New Zealand apples, by their freshness and good quality, will attract buyers who have been neglecting apples lately. This has not been surprising, for the Americans now offering are mostly very unsatisfactory. The market will certainly be severely tested, for during the next three weeks 250,000 cases are due from Australia and New Zealand. Dried Fruits. “There are developments in the Migration Commission’s recommendations on the Australian dried fruits industry,” the newspaper “Grocer” says. “Among them is a proposal to establish a co-operative selling agency, with a. branch in London for elimination agents. Whether such a proposal, if adopted, would be successful remains to be seen. Traders in this country dislike experiments of this sort. If the Commonwealth authorities recall what happened to New Zealand with respect to an absolute control policy with regard to dairy produce, they may he disposed to think twice before attempting to upset the established customs of the dried fruit trade.”

Wool Sales. ' The second series of wool sales is proceeding most satisfactorily. There is no sign of weakness of any description,. and competition from all quarters is well maintained. Writing on the position, the Bradford correspondent of the “Economist” says:—“The impression created by the London sales is that all available wool will lie wanted, and, in some quarters, the belief is still held that values are likely to be higher in the autumn. The influence of the strong raw wool position is seen in the very firm quotations for tops, in which there is a steady turnover, especially in cross-breds.” Another ' Bradford correspondent writes: —“A leading member of the trade remarked on the change during his forty years’ connection with it. He had never known a. situation parallel to that existing to-day. The salient feature is to be found in the fact that the actual consumptive demand, having been sustained and accelerated since the beginning of the season, raw material has never been known to be so freely absorbed upon arrival, and that, consequently, the quantity of wool still to come forward and available for further contracts is unusually small, compared with supplies which customarily have been accumulated at this period of the year to provide for inter-season’s requirements.”