SPECULATIVE
.It is true- that pail_ pasaa; with the very- partial sucoess -of investment issues, almost all of the more speculative flotations, and especially those connected with the rubber plantation industry, are quite eagerly absorbed. Not only, however, is this due to the fact that the state of the market in this class of shares encourages the mere premium hunter, but it must also be remembered that the amounts involved in each issue are comparatively small and that even one or two of the big Colonial issues involve amounts equal to some twenty or more of the speculative issues. A feature of the past week has been a further spectacular rise in the price of rubber, and the share movement also shows no signs of abating. Nor, for the most part, can the movement be described as a mere indiscriminate gamble, though there is little doubt that the time has arrived for very careful discrimination. It would not be difficult nowadays to pick out quite a number of shares where at present
prices the capitalization per acre is wholly unwarranted. On the other hand, the fascination of the market from the specu- lator's point of view arises from the fact that there are probably still more instances where even at the present level shares are undervalued.
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