COMMODITY MARKETS AND PRICES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 204, 29 July 1939, Page 5

COMMODITY MARKETS AND PRICES.

THE SHARE MARKET.

(By “Ponloo.”)

The New Zealand Stock Exchanges, like those in Australia, are dominated by the movements on the London Stock Exchange, and the latter is dominated by the political tension in Europe. It. is an unhealthy state of affairs and there is no caire for it but time. The uncertainty of the outlook is holding up business and yet the underlying sentiment of the Stock Exchanges is good. The present uncertainty cannot last indefinitely, and perhaps by the end of August the position ivill be clarified. Considering all the circumstances, trading on the Stock Exchanges of New Zealand is fairly good and there is a tendency for the volume of sales to improve. There appeal’s to l>o a good demand for Government and local body securities on all the four main '■ exchanges, and sales are made of these gilt-edged stocks daily. Most Government stocks may he said to be at a discount for the yield to the investor is £4 Is 7d per cent., while the present loan rate, of the Government. is 4 per cent. Til some cases the yield goes’as high as £4 7s 3d per cent. Hanks, insurance, breweries and gas shares are in good demand. Bank of New Zealand shares sold at 41s 3d, giving a return of just on £4 17s per cent. Insurance shares arc more firmly held than bank shares, and recent- sales reported show yields of 04s 4d per cent, to 75s per cent. Dominion Breweries at 33s give a yield of nearly 7 per cent, which makes the shares ralhcr attractive buying. This company has.had a remarkably good year according to its last balancesheet. and the directors are launching out for more trade. New Zealand Breweries appear to be much, favour- . ed, and a recent sale was made at 37s 7d, at which price the yield is only £4 10s 5d per cent. As soon as conditions l>ecome normal there must follow a strong revival in. Stock Exchange dealings. | ' OVERSEAS TRADE. | The end of June is the end of tlib production year in the Dominion, and though all the surplus products will 1 not have been exported, the production year is, by general consent taken as closing on June 30. The exports for the twelve months totalled £57,851 ,COO, and the imports £50,500,000, the excess of exports, or the balance of trade, amounting to £1,351.000, a dangerously low level. It must be remembered that it is out of our exports that wo meet our overseas obligations, including the debt service which later amounts to about £lO.000,000 in New Zealand currency. Tt will be seen from this that, imports during the past year have been high, hence the imposition of import, restrictions. It must be kept in mind that there is a big time lag with respect to imports. The goods have to be ordered, in some cases twelve months before delivery, and it is thus very difficult to meet promptly any j tail in export income. I It is interesting to compare the trade figures for each of five years as under:— !

Year to Exports Imports | June 30 £ £ I

In the past- four production years tho export income was exceptionally large, the best in our hundred years of historv. In tho depression year of 1932-33, our exjiorts were valued at £37,471,000. and in the following year at £39,142.000. Compared with 193233. our exports for the production year just ended show an increase of £20,GIO 000, or over 50 per cent., andtliat tells tho difference between depression and prosperity. The production year of 1930-37 will bold the record for exjiorts for a long time to conic. The people must be thankful that they have four years of prosperous times, and there is no reason to anticipate any market setback. What the jjosition will be like when the world settles down to honest trading is beyond the power of anyone to forecast. The imports show- equally strong movements as the exjvorts. In tho past three years imports have been on a large scale and they wero fully justified by the abnormal increase in exjvorts. It will be noted that the latter increased by £11.000,000 in the production year _ 1935-30, as compared with the previous year, but the increase in imports was £5.000,000. In the following year, however, imports increased hy. about Tlierd was a further increase of £i.ooo.ooq. in 1937-38, the imports for that year being a. record. In the production-, year'll932 33 the imjiorts were valued at £22,191.000, and fell to £21.595,000 in the following period (1933 34), although exports liad increased by nearly £12,000,000, the result being that the excess of exports over imports,, or really the London funds, amounted to £27 000.000, which Was a record. 11l 1934-35 the imports rose by nearly £13,000.000. The people had more money to spend, and goods had to be imported to moot their demands. Iniports expand tho year following trie expansion of exports, and all dependsupon the'spending power of the community. Thus our imports rose from £21.909 000 in 1933-34, to £07,543,000 in 1937-38. There can bo no doubt that our prosperity and pur standard of living depend upon our exports, and 95 jier cent, of our exports arc primary products, and it- is. therefore. quite in order to say that New Zealand is entirely dependent upon the labours and production efforts of her farmeis.

PRODUCE MARKETS. Now Zealand butter on tlie London market is quoted at 120 s per cwt,, winch is another slight drop in value. The price, however, is the same as was ruling last rear, so the drop seems seasonal. The stocks in the cold stores or the United Kingdom are just about the same as they were a .year ago. Britain’s imports of butter for the sixmonths to tlio end of June totalled 132 8-Id tons from Empire countries as against 132,488 tons in the corresponding <six months of last year, showing practieallv no change. Of the total New Zealand contributed G9.13G tons, against 73.587 tons last year. Australia sent about 400 tons more. Bntain’s imports from Denmark ncie less by about 0000 tons. / The'demand for crossbred wool at the London sales has been well maintained. and there is now every reason to believe that, it will hold its favoured position; at least, until the close of the year if nothing very serious happens, and that is beyond anyone s power to forecast. 1 lie tops market is very firm and that is always a good Tlrn chilled beef trade, is expanding steadily, and will grow a great deal more provided pastoralists supply the right sort of stock. That they, areendeavouring to do so is proved l>\ the fact that the trade is growing. In the season of 1933 34 the exports of chilled hoof amounted to 10.-LG quarters, and for this season to May -d. the total was 192,938 quarters. Ihe chilled hoof trade is worth exploiting ju,si,«.-as much as Jjndo-

1034 35 .. ... 42.954.000 34,301.000 1935 30 ... ... 53.000,000 39,400.000 193637 .. ... 04,021.000 50.070,000 193733 .. ... 01.920 000 57.543,000 1938 39 .. ... 57.851,000 50,500,000