LONDON MARKETS VERY WEAK

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22082, 3 May 1937, Page 10

LONDON MARKETS VERY WEAK

DEFENCE LOAN MEETS POOR RESPONSE BETTER TONE AT CLOSING i * UJNII ED PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT.) LONDON, April 30. The city editor of the Australian Associated Press states that although there are signs of substantial and discriminating buying, markets are very weak. Gold shares have again been sold and oils and industrials are depressed. The weakness of markets has now spread throughout the world. The Continental Bourses, especially in Paris, are all severely hit, and Wall Street has been subject to wave after wave of selling. Even stock exchanges as far away as Bombay have broken badly. City men declare that there is poetic justice in the result of the first instalment of the defence loan, of which only 20 per cent, is believed to have been taken up, after being offered at i per cent, discount. The City wonders whether the Chancellor will at last realise that he cannot maintain the gilt-edged market if assaults on equity and the taking of risks are to be an element in business. Four powerful mining finance houses, namely, the Central Mining Corporation, Rand Mines. Ltd., Consolidated Goldfields of South Africa, and the Sir Abe Bailey group, agreed to support' shares in which they are interested to the extent of £4,000,000, causing markets to close with a more cheerful tone.