Another Stock Exchange

Last week hardly seemed the time to launch a new stock exchange--at a moment when the whole U.S. securities market was undergoing the most searching Government investigation since the 1930s.

Nonetheless, in Lower Manhattan's cobblestoned butter-and-egg wholesaling district, the cocky little National Stock Exchange made its debut amid the clink of champagne glasses and the clang of the trading gong.

The first new U.S. stock exchange since 1934, Natex (pronounced Nay-tex) will cater to fledgling companies that cannot meet the requirements of the major exchanges. While the American Stock Exchange rarely lists a company unless it has earnings of at least $150,000, and the New York Stock Exchange demands $1,000,000, Natex will have no minimum earnings requirement at all.

Natex Chairman Lawrence Huntington Taylor, 48, a veteran Wall Street broker, believes that many of the nation's more than 50,000 unlisted stock companies will flock to the Natex in hopes of getting the publicity, ease of trading, and aura of stability afforded by listing. But on opening day the new exchange listed only eight issues, most of which carried in their corporate titles such alluring words as "automated," "missiles" or "electronics"--and six of which are selling below their original offering prices.

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