By Simon Jessop
LONDON (Reuters) - Insurer Legal & General <LGEN.L> posted a 7 percent year-on-year rise in first-half operating profit on Thursday, buoyed by gains across all units except weather-hit general insurance.
Operating profit was 1.059 billion pounds for the six months to end-June, it said in a statement, broadly in line with consensus and helping underpin an interim dividend of 4.6 pence a share.
Pretax profit fell to 942 million pounds from 1.0376 billion pounds, however, after market volatility weighed on the performance of its investment portfolio.
After a "solid" performance, L&G said it was on course for a strong second half of the year, driven by a pipeline of new business in de-risking corporate pension schemes.
"We are confident that Legal & General is strongly positioned for growth in H2 and beyond," said Nigel Wilson, Group Chief Executive.
(Reporting by Simon Jessop; editing by Silvia Aloisi and Carolyn Cohn)
