SECURITIES

Better Shot for Small Investors Urged: An investor group urged big Wall Street firms to give small investors a better opportunity to buy stock in initial public offerings. The National Council of Individual Investors said small investors were denied the opportunity to earn profits of up to $1.1 billion in 1995 because they were shut out of IPOs. “It’s time for investors to demand an end to the unfair, two-tiered system for new stock offerings that reserves the easiest profits for institutions and the ultra-wealthy, and then leaves small investors nothing more than the scraps,” said Gerri Detweiler, NCII’s policy director. The group is issuing a petition asking the nation’s 25 largest securities firms to increase the allocation of IPO shares to small investors from the current average of 10% to at least 25%of the new stock offerings.