2(1)Any number of shares of the same class held by one person in one capacity shall for the purposes of this Part of this Act be regarded as indistinguishable parts of a single asset (in this paragraph referred to as a holding) growing or diminishing on the occasions on which additional shares of the class in question are acquired, or some of the shares of the class in question are disposed of.
(2)Without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing sub-paragraph, a disposal of shares in a holding, other than the disposal outright of the entire holding, is a disposal of part of an asset and the provisions of this Part of this Act relating to the computation of a gain accruing on a disposal of part of an asset shall apply accordingly.
(3)Shares shall not be treated for the purposes of this paragraph as being of the same class unless they are so treated by the practice of a recognised stock exchange in the United Kingdom or elsewhere or would be so treated if dealt with on such a stock exchange, but shares shall be treated in accordance with this paragraph notwithstanding that they are identified in some other way by the disposal or by the transfer or delivery giving effect to it.
(4)A person's holding shall not include any shares the disposal of which by him is chargeable to Case VII of Schedule D (that is to say where the acquisition and disposal of the shares by him is in circumstances such that a gain accruing from it is or would have been chargeable to income tax under Case VII of Schedule D), and for the purposes of this sub-paragraph the shares so disposed of shall be identified with shares acquired by that person as provided by paragraph 8 of Schedule 9 to the [1962 c. 44.] Finance Act 1962.
(5)This paragraph shall apply separately in relation to any shares held by a person to whom they were issued as an employee of the company or of any other person on terms which restrict his rights to dispose of them, so long as those terms are in force, and, while applying separately to any such shares, shall have effect as if the owner held them in a capacity other than that in which he holds any other shares of the same class.
(6)Nothing in this paragraph shall be taken as affecting the manner in which the market value of any asset is to be ascertained.
(7)This paragraph, without sub-paragraph (3), shall apply in relation to a disposal of any assets as they apply in relation to a disposal of shares, where the assets are of a nature to be dealt in without identifying the particular assets disposed of or acquired.
(8)This paragraph applies in relation to securities of a company as it applies in relation to shares.