BRITISH TRADE

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 9 December 1924, Page 5

BRITISH TRADE

ANGLO-GERMAN TREATY. STOCK EXCHANGE STEADY. ENCOURAGING FIGURES. . ST CABLE—PRES 3 ASSOCIATION— COPYRIG-HT LONDON, Dee. 7. ‘Quietly steady” is the best descrip- _ tion -applicable to the Stock Exchange, i which lias weathered the excitement _ arising from the Egyptian tension 1 without anything more serious hap- _ pening than a sharp l drop in Egyptian r bonds. Generally the markets are i firm and though the settlement con- . eluded last Thursday was noticeably of . smaller dimensions than the two pre- | vious, there was no sign of weakness apparent. i A feature has been the demand for > the new issue of- the Common wealth i loan, which was a notable success, but . undoubtedly a good proportion of the ; applications came from “stags” for i scrip selling at a slight discount, i Another issue which is likely to at- - tract an enormous subscription, is the ! Greek Government's “refugee” loan , floated under the auspices ,of the finan- , eial commission of the League of Na- . tions The proceeds will be devoted to the settlement of Greek refugees upon the land. The total amount of the loan is £12.300.000, of-which Britai,ls sh ™ e is £7,500,000 in 7 per cents The issue price is 85, allowing tor redemption at- par in twent-v years. The loan yields over 81 per cent., so it is not surprising that not cmlv was there a great rush to secure a share in its underwriting, but that long queues waited outside the issuing houses for prospectuses. ~ FOREIGN EXCHANGES. lhe sterling lias again provided the sensation of _ the foreign exchange market, its price having at one time reached 4091 cents. There have lveeu -levensh fluctuations, and to-day’s closing price was-4GBI- cents. According to a- financial expert, this movement was not based on general economic factors, as both the movements or prices and the trade balance in the two countries would suggest a fall rather than a rite. I’robably the immediate cause is the difference in ma-iket- rates at the moment’between the two countries, which resulted in the movement of a large amount of short money from New York to London. Therefore the position is far from stable. ; Following this rise in the sterling and dollar exchange, discussion lias anseu in the newspapers regarding °l ,r e * rl y I’criirn to- the gold standard Ihe Economist writes “Undoubtedly hopes are growing on both sides of the Atlantic that the present movement foreshadows an early return to parity and Great Britain s resumption of the gold standard. It these hopes can be realised, a contribution to world reconstruction will be made second only in importance to the introduction of the Dawes reparation plan if Great Britain a return to the gold standard is soon to be followed by the great Dominions, and other countries, among whom Holland, Switzerland-and Spain are most likely to be first.” RETURN OF GERMANS. n £be provisions! of the Anglo-German Uommemai Treaty are arousing muen interest in the city, particularly in banking circles, in which considerable difference oi opinion exists regarding the advisability of permitting German banks to reopen ’ branohes m London One side suggests that Loudon, being the monetary centre of the world, is the international clearing-house, to which foreign countries must be admitted, and Germany, which was formerly one of the most important customers, cannot be excluded now we are at peace. On the other hand the opinion is expressed that Germany, being our competitor, it is against British interests to allow her to' come into this country. There is iittle likeli- • hood of the British banks extending to Germany, so reciprocity is of no value to us. The .slight- setback in the metal mar- 1 lcet is largely attributable to the ad- ! vance m the sterling exchange, and the positions of copper, tin, lead and spelter are all intrinsically strong, tin especially meeting with a steady’ demand from works in America, South < Hales and .the Continent, and as one of the brokers points out, it is an in- * teresting fact that, with hea-vy shipments from the Straits Settlement to j all parts and heavy arrivals in Lon- i don, tin is no sooner discharged from i steamers than it is cleared, either 1 tor English consumption or transhipment. t j l' l -a review of the wine industry < W. A Gilbey, Ltd., stated that the i annual world production, according to < the latest, nejturnsV is .estimated to ! total 4,000,000,000 gallons, of which I ranee alone produces one third, u ranee s -annual home consumption of 1 wine apart from the ''quantity cl is- ] i aoo J nt il brandy, amounts to I E 000.000.000 gallons, or actually 150 1 bottles per head of the whole ponida- i tion. compared with -the United King- 1 dom s almost negligible consumption ’ of two bottles a head, and the latter i includes wines from all European 1 countnes as well as from Australia « and the other Dominions. c