MONEY MARKET

Gisborne Times, Volume LXIII, Issue 10139, 27 October 1925, Page 5

MONEY MARKET

EXPANSION OF BUSINESS ON STOCK EXCHANGE. GILT-EDGED STOCKS RECOVER. > LONDON. Oct. 24. There lias been a general expansion of business on the Stock Exchange, for though the. boom in rubber has subsided, business in many departments is active. The happy issue of the Locarno negotiations served to strengthen public' confidence in the general outlook, and improved reports on the condition of several staple industries have caused a demand for commercial and industrial securities. Rumors of impending heavy withdrawals of gold for New Y’ork, and the consequent possibility of an advance in the bank rate, caused some disturbance in gilt-edgeds, but the market recovered when, it was learnt that the exports were under two millions. which is about one-third of the amount anticipated, and the New Y'ork exchange reacted favorably. The impression is now growing that a higher bank rate may be unnecessary this year. Sir John Huuter’s pessimistic remarks about the country’s trade are dealt with in the Westminster Bank Review, which says: “The picture as a whole is painted much too blackly. If Sir John Hunter had been equally familiar with the conditions in dis tricts like Coventry, as he is with North-east England, his outlook would certainly have been modified.” The Review points out that the latest annual analysis of nearly 1500 British limited companies shows that on the average the profits increased during last year, and recent calculations place the volume of British production during 1921 as 8-5 per cent of that of 1 925, compared with 80 per cent, in 1021, and 95 per cent, in 1923 The Review proceeds to make a suggestion that- Britain may have to attack the problem of foreign competition in trade by making a fresh advance in the direction of industrial specialisation. “That is, we may have to devote our energies less to the cruder industries, which foreign countries can carry on successfully locally with their own resources, and more to the finished processes in which our position is unchallenged.” The writer adds: “The process of transition may be painful in some respects, but we shall be advancing a stage further along the path to economic evolution.” — A. and N.Z.O-A.