Standard Life surges to the top of the FTSE 100 leaderboard afterannouncing that its net flow of new money more than doubled year on year in thefirst three months of 2013.
The British insurance firm rises 6.3 percent after announcing that it'sassets under management rose to 7 percent in the first quarter, prompting a waveof bullish broker commentary.
"The main positive surprise in inflows came in the form of institutionalpensions and Standard Life Investments (SLI)," analysts at Deutsche Bank say ina note, hiking their target price by 14 percent and raising the stock to "buy"from "hold".
"SLI's inflows of 3 billion pounds (15 percent annualized of AuA) isimpressive, and represents the third consecutive quarter at this run-rate."
Standard Life has an analyst revision rating on Thomson Reuters Starmine of72, where 100 represents the firm that analysts are turning the most bullish on.On Wednesday Investec also rated the stock at "buy" - a reiteration of theirprevious stance.
The firm trades at a premium to fellow insurers Legal and General,which trades at a Price/Earnings ratio of 11.4, Prudential and OldMutual, which trade at 12.8 and 10.2 respectively.
Reuters messaging rm://alistair.smout.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net
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