An early rebound in London shares has faded with little to support early gains after yesterday's falls.
Prudential and Aviva have shed gains to fall 0.4% and 0.7% respectively.
Z ...
An early rebound in London shares has faded with little to support early gains after yesterday's falls.
Prudential and Aviva have shed gains to fall 0.4% and 0.7% respectively.
Zurich has suffered a loss of 3.64% so far in today's trading.
Yesterday insurance company stocks were the worst hit in the stock market slide.
While the market fell 4.5%, Royal & SunAlliance fell 9% to 96.2p, while Prudential was off 6% to 339.5p.
European insurance stocks were also hurt, with one leading French reinsurer, Scor, down by a third after it announced a £250m cash call.
Insurance analyst Ned Cazalet said yesterday: "The FSA is climbing the wall over the financial condition of life offices. I know, because I've been in to see them."
Analysts are predicting that the industry may struggle to maintain solvency if the FTSE falls through 3,500 points.
The latest sell-off in the stock market has been fuelled by "distress selling" by insurers switching out of equities and into bonds to bolster their capital position.
Several insurers have recently sought to raise capital. Scor, Royal & SunAlliance, Zurich and Aegon have recently announced plans to bolster capital.
