BRITISH TRADE REVIEW.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 49, 28 February 1927, Page 4

BRITISH TRADE REVIEW.

GILT. EDGES AFFECTED. BY CHINESE TROUBLE. OIL BOOM COLLAPSES. LONDON, February 26. Business on the London Stock Exchange has been somewhat irregular. Giltedged stocks were adversely affected by a temporary monetary stringency, as well as by the Chinese trouble and a surfeit of new issues. The boom in oil shares collapsed as quickly as it rose, but business in mining shares has been very active at advancing prices. Industrial stocks generally have been strong. A feature of the last two or three weeks Las been the issue of a number of British provincial corporation loans. These went well, but apparently the demand for them is now over, for the underwriters were compelled to take a large proportion of the two last issues. Several of these corporation loans have been floated in the form of bonds bearing interest at 5 per cent, at an issue price of 100 and this price is regarded as being too high. Nothing has yet been done regarding the Commonwealth's large conversion operation, nor as regards one or two other Australian State flotations, and in the present position of the money market they will probably be deferred for some time. The repayment of the Commonwealth loan of £12,750,000 is not due till June 1 and it seems wise to wait till financial conditions in London improve, as they are expected to do by April, it not earlier. BRADFORD WOOL TRADE. The Bradford wool trade is beginning to show more activity, but the manufacturers cannot induce the buyers of piecegoods to give prices commensurate with the present high values of the raw material. As a Bradford correspondent says, it is of course, the keen competition by foreign competitors which is mainly responsible for the manner in which the price of raw material has moved to a point well above what would be justified by the position in the Home consuming depart- , ments. Unfortunately foreigners are able, not only to pay more for wool, but also to undersell us in our own market with fully manufactured goods, because of th'eir lower cost of conversion. It is said that foreigners are offering in London fancy worsted cloths at prices which are about 1/ a yard less than the price at which similar cloths can be produced in this district. • The outlook for firms with machinery in the Bradford worsted area is anything but rosy. On this occasion, however, they have the satisfaction of not being saddled with heavy stocks and dear materials. They are determined to let those importers who buy raw material on the present pricelevel ruling in Australia carry the bulk of the risk. PROSPECTS FOR APPLES. The prospects of the Australian and New Zealand apple trade are regarded as favourable, as it now seems certaiu that the competition from American apples at the commencement of the season will be less serious than in recent years. Many parcels of the fruit now arriving from the United States are in poor condition. The shippers are apparently doubtful about the keeping qualities of their fruit, and are trying to get rid of their stocks as rapidly as possible. This is proved by the fact that the arrivals of American apples so far are more than 30 per cent above those in the corresponding period last season. * > The German and Scandinavian buyers evidently expect to have good markets, for they continue to pay high c.i.f. prices for Australian fruit.