Standard Life Posts 29% Increase in Fourth Quarter Sales

Britain's leading share index ended Wednesday morning on an intraday high, up 19.60 points or 0.4% at 5,303.91 thanks in large part to strength in the financial and mining sectors. Edinburgh-based insurer Standard Life was the best performer in the FTSE 100, up 3.8%, after it reported what it called "a significant increase" in fourth quarter flows and sales.

Dominic Turner
shareprices.com - Wednesday, February 03, 2010

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Life and pensions new business sales were up to £4.2 billion compared with £3.0 billion in the third quarter, whilst net inflows from life and pensions increased to £1.3 billion compared with £0.4 billion in the same period last year. New business sales for the full year were down 7% – with weak performance in Europe the main contributory factor – but even this was less than expected. The results may signal a possible recovery by Standard Life, which traded as high as 217.17p at the start of last year and had seen just over 9% shaved off its share price before its latest rise. Last month, the insurer announced that its 1.2 million with-profits would not be paid increased bonuses, despite the recovery in the stock market last year.

Elsewhere in the financial sector, Merrill Lynch issued a positive broker note on U.K. banks lifting the share prices of Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Lloyds Banking Group by between 0.9% and 3.3%. Standard Chartered was something of a laggard, however, gaining just 0.1% in morning trade.

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