Standard Life gets H1 market boost, first half assets up 7 pct

LONDON, Aug 9 (Reuters) - British insurer and asset manager Standard Life (LSE: SL.L - news) on Tuesday posted a 7 percent rise in first-half assets under administration, as market gains helped to offset outflows from some of its investment funds.

Total (LSE: 524773.L - news) assets were 328 billion pounds ($425.88 billion), up from 307.4 billion pounds at December 31.

This growth exceeded a 313.9 billion pound consensus forecast of 16 analysts provided by the company and helped the firm's underlying operating performance rise 14 percent over the period.

Operating pretax profits rose 18 percent to 341 million pounds, underpinning a 7.5 percent increase in its interim dividend to 6.47 pence a share.

($1 = 0.7702 pounds) (Reporting by Simon Jessop, editing by Sinead Cruise)