INVESTORS CHEERFUL

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 309, 30 December 1944, Page 3

INVESTORS CHEERFUL

END OF YEAR RECOVERY VIEWS ON FUTURE TRENDS N.Z. Press Association—Copyright Rec. 12.30 p.m. LONDON, Dec. 20. Helped by the Western front news, the markets closed the year on a fairly cheerful note, says the Associated Press. Opinions on future trends appear to be divided into two "schools. One holds that the high prices reached last August were probably the peak of the wartime bull market. The other school takes a more optimistic view owing to the Treasury's determination to maintain cheap money, thf Government's full employment policy, the huge domestic replacement demands and the urgent necessity to rebuild the export trade. The Investors' Chronicle, while declaring that it is not Britain's business what the Australians do with the Australian banks, argues that Britain is free to voice an opinion on the methods of compensation to be adopted if the Australian public decides on nationalisation, which, it contends, at the current market prices would be an unfair basis of acquisition, since these are affected by nationalisation threats and by wartime controls, which have led to a general reduction in bank dividends and a lowering of share quotations. The Chronicle distinguishes between strictly Australian banks and Australian banks registered in the United Kingdom. If the worst came to the worst the latter would pay off their liabilities in Australia and distribute the remaining assets among their shareholders. The Chronicle, however, seems inclined to the view that the Labour party will be content with increasing the influence of the Commonwealth Bank, diminishing that of the trading banks and restricting their profits.