Brother Bulls

In stock exchanges all over the world, blood brothers of Wall Street's bull were on the rampage last week. Good business abroad, peace, and confidence in the U.S. economy as the bulwark of the free world combined to create the greatest stock boom the world has ever seen.

Great Britain. On London's Thread-needle Street, where stocks have gained an average 38.5% in the past year, prices on the London Exchange last week hit a new 1954-55 high. Transactions in a single day totaled 18.836. highest in more than seven years. Fed by bigger dividends (up 20% in 1954) and high earnings, London's bull market was fattened up last year by some $900 million worth of new capital pouring into the market v. $500 million in 1953. Among the biggest price gains: British Petroleum (formerly Anglo-Iranian), up 144%; Hawker Siddeley aircraft, up 90.6%; Unilever, up 72%; Rolls-Royce, up 70.3%.

France. The bull on the Paris Bourse did even better; stock prices were up an average 58% in the past year. Chief reason: peace in Indo-China, which not only helped give a boost to such peace stocks as autos (up 112%) but also brought about repatriation of big French investments in Indo-China. Acieries de Longwy (steel) jumped from $38 a share to $73; Suez Canal shares rose nearly 50% to $350. Most spectacular gain: Esso Standard of France, which soared almost 1,000% following the discovery of oil near Bordeaux (TIME, Sept. 13).

Switzerland. The Zurich Bourse, leading stock market of Switzerland, had its most active year since World War II's end, with average prices up 24% in 1954 and almost every Swiss stock climbing to new alltime highs. Nestle Alimentana Co. (food and chocolate) was up 20% from 1953; Sulzer Machine Works up 35%; Switzerland's Ciba chemical company, helped by the new drug "Serpasil," used to combat nervous disorders and high blood pressure, jumped from $650 a share to $1,050.

The Low Countries. On the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, the general stock index stood last week at 229.27, up 60 points in a year. Giant Phillips Electric was up 64%; Royal Dutch Shell was up 53%. In Belgium, prices were at their highest levels since World War II, led by such stocks as Union Miniere (mining), up 80% to $945, and the holding company Societe Generale, up 55% to $332.

West Germany. The stock price index for West Germany's eight stock exchanges last week hit a new postwar peak of 172, up 85% in a year, the biggest rise of any country. Helped by the prospect of rearmament and the lifting of extremely heavy taxes on sales of stock held less than a year (new time limit: three months), German stock prices reflected the extent of West Germany's boom. Biggest gainers: Casella Chemicals, up 160% to $112 a share; Erin Bergbau (mining), up 375% to $85; Beteiligungs A. G. Ruhrort (shipping), up 250% to $90.

Italy. In Milan, the biggest exchange in Italy, the index of 144 stocks rose 80% during the year, as the volume of trading soared from an average 650,000 shares a day to nearly 3,000,000. Among the biggest rises: Siele mercury, up 313% to $19; Fiat motors, up 116% to $2.25. Last week, however, Milan's bull, like Wall Street's (TIME, Jan. 17) stumbled and stopped to catch its breath; the price index dropped 2%.

Japan. Around Tokyo's cluttered "Street of the Helmet" near the Tokyo Stock Exchange, hundreds of little stores last week teemed with brokers and small investors ranging from kimono-clad women to weatherbeaten farmers, all hopeful of making a few quick yen. After a year of falling prices, the Tokyo stock market suddenly turned around, gained 10% last week alone. Reasons: there were prospects of trade with Red China, and the new Hatoyama caretaker government promised a less stringent austerity program, announced plans to reduce taxes on corporate dividends.

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