London market slightly easier

Press, 21 March 1983, Page 14

London market slightly easier

Share prices on the London Stock Exchange closed easier on Friday, compared with the previous Friday. Prices rose until Wednesday, the day of the Budget, and were marked back afterwards because of profit taking.

The most marked change was a 14 per cent increase in personal tax allowances, which will stop income tax altogether for more than one million low-income Britons and save an average household about £2 (NZ$4.6O) a week. Levies on. tobacco, alcohol, and petrol were raised by a bit less than the inflation rate of the last year. Businessmen generally

welcomed a reduction in payroll tax. A fairly accurate outline of the Budget had been leaked to the press over the last week, and investors had reacted in advance, sending prices on the London Stock Market to record levels.

Hours before the Budget Britain’s four main banks reduced their base lending rates to 10.5 per cent from 11 per cent. Hopes of an O.P.E.C. agreement, firmer gold and silver prices, a steadier pound, and Budget eve speculation of lower interest rates had combined earlier to attract most investors on the London Stock Exchange today to government gilts.

Australian shares did not suffer heavily however, with investors seemingly taking little notice of the easier trend in Sydney. Closing prices on Friday of a selection of issues were:

Ampol, 77%; ANZ, 202%; BHP, 360; Dalgety, 338; Elder Smith, 147%; Fletcher, 84%; North BH, 129%; Plessey, 540%; Renison, 215; RTZ ord, 545 and regd, 508%; Trans Dev, 89%; West Mining, 236%; Westpac, 145%; BAT, 630; Distillers, 226; Glaxo, 705; ICI, 396; Lloyds Bank, 490; Marks and Spencer, 191; P and 0, 142; Prudential ‘A’, 376; Reed Int, 290; Shell Transport, 448; Unilever, 845; War Loan, 35%; De Beers, 730 (quoted in U.S. dollars).