Questor share Tip: grip, Standard Life on UK pension market key for growth

Instead, 50 years, who succeeded Sir Sandy Crombie as CEO of the company last year, will talk about savings and long term investment and blow away the cobwebs in 185 years Scottish institution only mutualised-of in 2006.

Mr. Nish himself has established a clear timetable for doing so and yesterday-show results he made progress, although he himself has admitted that there is still a "much to do."

Other (dare I say it) insurers, Standard Life has its sights set mainly on the British market and hopes to exploit the 1.4 trillion of £ in pensionable pension active he believes are to win in Britain.

Mr. Nish has spent its first year in Office of restructuring of its management team and the launch of new products, such as Lifelens, new package of benefits employee of the group. Standard Life has also disposed of its banking and health care units and made a few bolted acquisitions to strengthen its "basic proposals" - a phrase that Mr. Nish likes to use.

Although it is clearly too early to judge the long-term these changes impact, financial statements of the of the Standard Life were quite strong in 2010.

The Group posted a 5pc 6 increase in profit before tax of 425 m £ paying revenues have increased by 16pc for £ 1 billion. Manager of property of the company, Standard Life investments, also saw assets under management hit a record more than £ 71 enabling the company to increase its total dividend by 6 2pc 13 percent.

Moreover, the Group managed secure transactions to provide services to 182 new British pension schemes, representing 72 000 employees.

It is clearly a solid platform to build and Mr. Nish will want to prove that British companies do not have to build global empires to succeed.

Mr. Nish 2011 will be the year he and his team "execute and deliver", explains their strategy, winning several new companies in mind until December 31, when he says that the group must be ready to reap the benefits. It is because of the planned regulatory changes for 2012, including reforms of the pension which will be automatically enrolled employees to employers pension plan their existing or a new system of personal accounts.

Standard Life believes that more businesses of the United Kingdom will need his services as being more employees pay into pension schemes. The group is currently a leader of the market in this sector. In addition, the implementation of the review of retail distribution will prohibit commission payments to intermediaries. That Standard Life already operates on the paid model of choice, it is expected to steal a March as companies are forced to change their payment models.

Questor recognizes the impact of Mr. Nish changes are likely to have on society and recognizes performance of healthy dividend of 5 3pc, it already provides to investors.

Shares in the company rose by just below 10pc during the past year, the investment to maintain - especially for the number of ranking of the retail investors, the company has - a legacy of its demutualization five years ago.

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Return of the Gold Standard as world order unravels

 Gold surged to an all-time high of $1,594 an ounce in London, lifting silver to $39 in its train. Photo: AP

On one side of the Atlantic, the eurozone debt crisis has spread to the countries that may be too big to save - Spain and Italy - though RBS thinks a €3.5 trillion rescue fund would ensure survival of Europe's currency union.

On the other side, the recovery has sputtered out and the printing presses are being oiled again. Brinkmanship between the Congress and the White House over the US debt ceiling has compelled Moody's to warn of a "very small but rising risk" that the world's paramount power may default within two weeks. "The unthinkable is now thinkable," said Ross Norman, director of thebulliondesk.com.

Fed chair Ben Bernanke confessed to Congress that growth has failed to gain traction. "Deflationary risks might re-emerge, implying a need for additional policy support," he said.

The bar to QE3 - yet more bond purchases - is even lower than markets had thought. The new intake of hard-money men on the voting committee has not shifted Fed thinking, despite global anger at dollar debasement under QE2.

Fuelling the blaze, the emerging powers of Asia are almost all running uber-loose monetary policies. Most have negative real interest rates that push citizens out of bank accounts and into gold, or property. China is an arch-inflater. Prices are rising at 6.4pc, yet the one-year deposit rate is just 3.5pc. India's central bank is far behind the curve.

"It is very scary: the flight to gold is accelerating at a faster and faster speed," said Peter Hambro, chairman of Britain's biggest pure gold listing Petropavlovsk.

"One of the big US banks texted me today to say that if QE3 actually happens, we could see gold at $5,000 and silver at $1,000. I feel terribly sorry for anybody on fixed incomes tied to a fiat currency because they are not going to be able to buy things with that paper money."

China, Russia, Brazil, India, the Mid-East petro-powers have diversified their $7 trillion reserves into euros over the last decade to limit dollar exposure. As Europe's monetary union itself faces an existential crisis, there is no other safe-haven currency able to absorb the flows. The Swiss franc, Canada's loonie, the Aussie, and Korea's won are too small.

"There is no depth of market in these other currencies, so gold is the obvious play," said Neil Mellor from BNY Mellon. Western central banks (though not the US, Germany, or Italy) sold much of their gold at the depths of the bear market a decade ago. The Bank of England wins the booby prize for selling into the bottom at €254 an ounce on Gordon Brown's orders in 1999. But Russia, China, India, the Gulf states, the Philippines, and Kazakhstan have been buying.

China is coy, revealing purchases with a long delay. It has admitted to doubling its gold reserves to 1,054 tonnes or $54bn. This is just a tiny sliver of its $3.2 trillion reserves. China's Chamber of Commerce said this should be raised eightfold to 8,000 tonnes.

Xia Bin, an adviser to China's central bank, said in June that the country's reserve strategy needs an "urgent" overhaul. Instead of buying paper IOU's from a prostrate West, China should invest in strategic assets and accumulate gold by "buying the dips".

Step by step, the world is edging towards a revived Gold Standard as it becomes clearer that Japan and the West have reached debt saturation. World Bank chief Robert Zoellick said it was time to "consider employing gold as an international reference point." The Swiss parliament is to hold hearings on a parallel "Gold Franc". Utah has recognised gold as legal tender for tax payments.

A new Gold Standard would probably be based on a variant of the 'Bancor' proposed by Keynes in the late 1940s. This was a basket of 30 commodities intended to be less deflationary than pure gold, which had compounded in the Great Depression. The idea was revived by China's central bank chief Zhou Xiaochuan two years ago as a way of curbing the "credit-based" excess.

Mr Bernanke himself was grilled by Congress this week on the role of gold. Why do people by gold? "As protection against of what we call tail risks: really, really bad outcomes," he replied.

Indeed.

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Tub thumping bolsters Standard Chartered

The analyst also highlighted force Standard Chartered in emerging markets. «With its incomparable positioning through Asia, Africa and the Middle East and guard the roof very important for steady market share growth in the scale of the opportunity is immense», he added.

Standard Chartered spent 45 p £ 16.74 as the broader market rebounded as signs of manufacturing anxieties prevails exceeded growth in agitation in Egypt. The FTSE 100 advanced points 94.88 – 1. FP6 - 5957.82 while the FTSE 250 established 136.96 at 11608.47 points.

Pulling the large cap into positive territory were minors, the news of the growth in the manufacturing sector of China fueled the expectations of the strong demand for materials first nation hungry metal. Fresnillo, Antofagasta and Kazakhmys points 88 p to £ 13.84, 66 p to £ 14.72 and 72 percent to £ 15.78 respectively.

The ascent is made gains metals prices yesterday, with copper hit a record $9,955 (£ lífeyrissjóðir) a ton, before closing at $9,945. Analysts at Goldman Sachs predicts there was stronger in the future copper prices. "We believe that the fundamentals are in place to run extended over $9,000 ton and we expect prices in the second half of 2011 to ration demand," they added.

Centamin Egypt soared 10.6 147 percent since he shrugged his concern with the instability of the Egypt. The mining company said its day-to-day activities and the safety of its employees with its lighthouse, Sukari gold project based in the eastern desert of Egypt, are not affected by the events. Also give the shares a lift has been in the fourth quarter record gold production.

Analysts at Numis kept their "buy" rating on Centamin, saying Egyptian liquidation was "too much" and recommended to buy low price share.

Furthermore, Kenmare resources Petropavlovsk advanced 3.3 38.8 p and p 48-£ 10.71 respectively.

But while the concerns of dealers on the Egypt have been reduced, analysts Peel Hunt pointed instability elsewhere in the Middle East. King Abdullah II of Jordan Tuesday dismissed his Government, which the broker was a greater threat to hikma Pharmaceuticals - which is based in the country - the Egyptian crisis.

Paul Cuddon, Peel Hunt, analyst cut his rating on Hikma "sell" from "hold". He considered the dismissal of the Government as "a threat to the dominant position Hikma was established in Jordan, gateway on the market of the Middle East and North Africa".

However, Morgan Stanley analysts appear relatively unfazed by the evolution of the Middle East and their impact on Hikma. The broker has kept its rating "equal-weight" on the drug manufacturer, saying: "fluid developments across the Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan (8pc 10pc of sales) are a blow to sentiment, although we do not anticipate a change in long-term structural growth for pharmaceutical markets history throughout the region. Hikma acquired 30½ at 834½p, after four days of losses.

Return among blue-chips, arm Holdings and autonomy were support for first place — only to be overtaken by Fresnillo - after two corporations displayed results than the pleasure of the market.

Designer chip arm acquired 31½ in 547½p after realizing increased profits 73pc year-round, lifted by strong demand producers Smartphone and tablet computers.

Although there is still no sign of raised long acquisition of autonomy, the software company acquired 94 percent to £ 15.90 as it reported an increase in sales of its core product.

With the market in optimistic mood, gros-cap only 12 stocks were in negative territory. Travel companies remained in the pot to black with tui travel and Intercontinental Hotels, falling from 1½ to 251½p and 12 percent to £ 13.03. Between mid-caps, Thomas Cook hangar 2.7 187.9%.

However, bae Systems has been most pronounced blue-chip faller, sliding 8.4 percent 333.6.

Tate & Lyle' s share price is strained after he raises the price of corn up to one-fifth its sweeteners to offset the explosion in the price of corn. Although the company said that it should make progress on the exercise, he fell 9½-542 pp.

Analysts at Investec retained their rating from "hold" on Tate & Lyle and said they expected to see some profit taking on the back of the Declaration.

At the other end of the spectrum, Ocado rose 29.7% 247.7(2) to make first place after the retailer posted online grocery more narrow losses year-round.

ambrian Capital advanced 2½ to 26.75% as the natural resource-based investment bank said profits for the year were supposed to be substantially ahead of £ 1. 82 m estimated in December.

However, 212½p congenital Matchtech slipped staffing company after it provides that the benefit of year-round was likely to be around 20pc below of estimates, after having invested strongly increase its workforce.

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