LONDON FINANCE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 38, 14 August 1939, Page 12

LONDON FINANCE

SALES OF STERLING

SLACKNESS ON STOCK EXCHANGE

<By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.) LONDON, August 12. There has been some selling of sterling during the week in anticipation that the authorities will allow the pound to slide when the autumn pressure reaches its height. The underlying position of sterling has been weakened by the re-armament boom and the balance of trade has already deteriorated sharply. Dutch guilders rose on a keen demand from banking and other institutions desiring to cover themselves in connection with the Mendelssohn and Co., Amsterdam, bankers, which had suspended payment. A most curious feature of the dull market for stocks and shares has been the firmness of gilt-edged investments, which have withstood both the Danzig fears and the pressure of sterling. NEW ZEALAND LOAN. Business, however, has remained legligible. Even the New Zealand loan has attracted so little interest that there have been fewer than half a dozen markings since the dealings opened. The sponsors of the loan are not ready to sell at a discount. The "Financial News" considers that buyers are disinclined to bite till the Dominion has given clear proof that it is able' to surmount its financial problems. The traditional August holiday quietude reduced business in industrials to a mere trickle. Rubber shares absorbed most of the interest of speculators. The spot price of rubber is now the highest for two years. . There has been some renewal of interest in base metal shares, but gold shares are inactive and inclined to easiness.