MORRIS MOTORS

Hokitika Guardian, 12 November 1936, Page 2

MORRIS MOTORS

AMAZING RUSH FOR SHARES

SCENES AT STOCK EXCHANGE

LONDON, November 9

Amazing scenes were witnessed when the 5s units of Morris Motors ordinary stock were introduced on the Stock Exchange. At the start .of dealings there was a scramble for stock, even more exciting than the pre-war rush for shares in the mining and rubber markets. The turnover of stock was enormous. Before the excitement ended at least one member had been seriously injured. Minor hurts and lost buttons were numerous.

It had b'een arranged by the Stock Exchange committee that dealings in the units should start at 10 a.m., but more than an hour before that time members, had begun to assemble in Throgmorton Street. When the doors of the House opened there was a surge to the industrial market. A queue fbur deep was formed and. then another. Within a few minutes there were four long queues serpentining into and a mund the other markets. The biggest queue was .more than 1001't long. The queues were quiet and orderly untile at 10 o’clock, thje bell rang for the commencement of’official business Immediately there was a stampede for the four jobbers who had lines of the shares for disposal, and they were forced to mount their seats to save themselyes from being overturned. The Stock Exchange has seldom witnessed such scene. Onlookers declared it to he disgraceful, but those who took part were so thoroughly exhausted by • the time they had carried out their clients’ instructions that they did not wish for anything but to crawl away and recover their breath.

A stockbroker who has been a member for more than 50 years said that he had never before seen anything approaching this rush. One of the biggest jobbing firms had four representatives standing on forms in the middle of a crowd booking bargains as fast as they could write. For one brief moment, the 5s unit was quoted at 38s 6d to 395, but so great was the confusion that simultaneously other jobbers were bidding 41s, while elsewhere quotations of 43s 9d and 45s were being shouted to brokers over the of the crowd who had already done heads of the crowd. Those in the front of the crowd who had already done their deals were unable to get out and, bad to pass their bargain slips over the crowd to their clerks at the back to be reported to the offices. After an hour’s business .the price had risen to 455, after which the market settled down •around 425.

The shares formed part of the 10,000,000 held by Lord Nuffield, founder and chairman of Morris Motors, who decided recently to place part of big holding on the , market. At yesterday’s price the company’s capital is valued at about 1)25,000,000 of which Lord Nuffield’s holding represents over £16,000,000.