Tonight:
5°c
Small-time punters are ready to delve into the stock market again, figures from Standard Life indicate.
Sales of mutual funds — units trusts and the like — rose 70% in the first quarter to £276 million.
The insurer has been positioning itself as a fund management house for some time, but pensions remain at the heart of its business.
Worldwide life and pension sales fell 20% to £3.6 billion in the three months to March — not as bad as rival Friends Provident, which fell 40%, but not stellar.
The group's surplus is strong at £3.2 billion, the highest in its peer group. Standard continues, in the words of chief executive Sandy Crombie, to be “reassuringly dull”.
Some in the City want Crombie, 60, to act more quickly to name a successor.
A note from Cazenove to clients, says: “The group's ongoing leadership and strategy remains uncertain.”
