The week's winners
Atrium up 7.1%
Goshawk up 5.4%
The week's losers
Royal & SunAlliance down 6.5%
Allianz down 5.5%
Insurers are doing well right now. But some are doing better than others.
Berkshire Hathaway is a case in point. With the steady hand of the world's second richest man, Warren Buffet, on the tiller, the insurance-based group reported a doubling in profits in the second quarter.
The group made much of its money from selling
US government bonds, but there's a lesson to be learned from breaking down its figures.
Profits from insurance underwriting alone totalled $260m (£162m) in the second quarter, against a loss of $16m (£10m) in the same period last year.
Net earnings per share boomed to $1,452 (£906) a share, up from $681 (£425) in the prior period.
The bumper results sent the shares rocketing into the stratosphere. The price was up by $200 (£125) a share on Friday's announcement and new investors would have to shell out an astonishing $75,300 (£46,964) to buy one share based on prices earlier this week - a result of there being relatively few of them on the market.
Chaucer's stock may not be rising by $200 a share but it continues steady growth. Enough to catch the eye of some significant institutional investors. Artemis Investment Management bought a 3.4% stake, when the stock was at about 43p, taking its total holding to 14.14%.
Scottish Widows also bought in, acquiring 0.87% and taking its total stake to 4.32%.
Hosted by comedian and actor Tom Allen, 34 Gold, 23 Silver and 22 Bronze awards were handed out across an amazing 34 categories recognising brilliance and innovation right across the breadth of UK general insurance.
