Standard Life slips on GARS fund concerns Standard Life was under pressure on Friday on fears that its flagship fund was becoming unwieldy. The life insurer is too reliant on its £17bn Global Absolute Return Strategies fund, which is "becoming a victim of its own success," Barclays argued. Strong performances in 2009 and 2010 have powered inflows but investment gains since then have been tougher to achieve, with June of this year its second-worst month on record, the broker noted. The resignation last month of Euan Munro, architect of the GARS fund, would also encourage investors to pull cash out, argued Barclays. Mr Monro's exit led Hargreaves Lansdown to remove GARS from its influential Wealth 150 list of recommended funds. Schroders" flagship UK Alpha fund suffered the same fate last year when portfolio manager Richard Buxton resigned. In the following three months the fund bled 40 per cent of its assets under management, Barclays said. Standard Life Investments provides 16 per cent of group operating profit yet the shares trade on par with asset managers at 14 times 2014 earnings, rather than the rating of 11 times earnings given to life insurers, said Barclays. "In reality, it is a life insurer with an average asset manager," the broker argued. It put a 311.5p target on Standard Life shares, which slid 0.9 per cent to 346.2p. The wider market edged higher, with the FTSE 100 recovering from a five-week low to add 16.65 points or 0.3 per cent to 6,499.99. For the week the index was down 1.3 per cent, its biggest weekly decline since June. Travel stocks were among Friday's fallers after both Thomas Cook and Tui cancelled trips to Egyptian resorts from Germany. Tui Travel lost 0.9 per cent to 359.4p and Ryanair was down 1.5 per cent to €6.62. UBS cut Thomas Cook, up 0.2 per cent to 146.3p, from its preferred list of travel stocks. While Egypt only accounted for 5-7 per cent of its programme and the financial impact for the year will be minimal, the high-profile press coverage was likely to keep the stock under pressure, it said. Housebuilders broke a five-day losing streak ahead of results next week from Persimmon , the month's worst blue-chip performer. Its shares bounced 8.3 per cent to £11.88 while Bovis Homes was ahead 7.6 per cent to 778.5p, Bellway added 6.5 per cent to £14.25 and Taylor Wimpey took on 6.5 per cent to 108.3p. Balfour Beatty advanced 8.7 per cent to 245.7p after an upgrade from "sell" to "buy" from Liberum Capital. Investors should write off an "awful" 2013 as irrelevant as the disposals and corrective measures taken will significantly improve prospects for 2014, Liberum argued. "Analysts have capitulated just when "discontinueds" and kitchen sinking make future profits more achievable," the broker said. The shares offer some of the best margin recovery potential in the sector and exposure to the early cycle US. Miners followed metal prices higher, with copper at a 10-week high and gold heading for its biggest weekly gain in a month. Randgold Resources added 5.3 per cent to £51.50 and Polymetal was up 9 per cent to 783.5p, while Glencore rose 2.2 per cent to 308.4p. A Merrill Lynch upgrade to "buy" lifted ITV 2.2 per cent to 160p. Strong UK retail sales data and an improving housing market suggest the risk to advertising is on the upside for 2014, it said. Anite faded 6.9 per cent to 117p after the handset testing software maker repeated full-year guidance having made a relatively slow start to the year. Frank Timis's African Minerals , the Sierra Leone iron ore miner, lost 2.9 per cent to 202p after Barclays advised selling. The unexpected exit this week of African's chief executive has added to uncertainties about the delivery of expansion plans, it said. RSM Tenon dropped 56.4 per cent to 1.9p after the highly indebted accountancy practice warned shareholders that its takeover talks would probably leave them with nothing.