The week's winners
Zurich Financial Services up 12.8%
Aviva up 7.3%

The week's losers
Wellington down 8.6%
Hiscox down 7.6%

Thompson Heath & Bond was the latest entry into the …

The week's winners
Zurich Financial Services up 12.8%
Aviva up 7.3%

The week's losers
Wellington down 8.6%
Hiscox down 7.6%

Thompson Heath & Bond was the latest entry into the insurance stable on the London Stock Exchange this week when it started trading on Tuesday.

It opened at 125p, not a bad premium on its placing price of 120p, and spent most of the afternoon at 124.5p before this column went to press.

Numis, which underwrote THB's flotation, forecast pre-tax profits up by 10% to £3.66m for the year to the end of April 2003 and set a target price of 140p.

Its broking profit margin, at more than 20%, looked better than comparison figures from the likes of the 10%-15% achieved by Windsor, Willis, HLF and Aon, analyst Justin Bates wrote.

THB's profit per worker looks pretty smart, too, at more than £18,000, which Numis again said put THB ahead of Willis, HLF and Aon.

Elsewhere, insurers were among the worst affected by the FTSE's heavy falls earlier this week.

The life insurance bunch took their punishment as investors feared low markets could spark forced selling, but the non-life sector suffered too.

Royal & SunAlliance was down 8.8% to 96.25p on Monday, as Aviva lost 5.2% to close at 357.5p on the same day.

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