The week's winners
Wellington up 8.8%
Hardy up 4.8%
The week's losers
Aon down 5%
Allianz down 4.2%
Insurers were swamped by the gloom settling over the Stock Exchange just as …
The week's winners
Wellington up 8.8%
Hardy up 4.8%
The week's losers
Aon down 5%
Allianz down 4.2%
Insurers were swamped by the gloom settling over the Stock Exchange just as surely as other sectors this week.
The four-day break was clearly not long enough for investors to forget their worries of the week before when the FTSE sank to a seven-month low soon after reopening on Wednesday morning.
Allianz, Aon, CGNU, Royal & SunAlliance, Brit and Amlin all lost a couple of percentage points as the festive holiday feeling gave way to a general retreat from the markets.
But a few stand out as they bucked the trend.
Cox continued to make advances, although at 64.5p, it has a long, long way to go. But at least it's heading it the right direction - welcome news for new finance director James Morley, who is replacing Richard Brewster.
Brewster was at the financial helm while the company's commercial operation racked up losses so huge they threatened its very survival.
Morley was previously group finance director at Guardian Royal Exchange.
Another one to buck the trend was IT outfit, Sherwood International.
Sherwood managed to reverse the overall trend by putting on 5% in early trading, thanks in part to its launch of a new software package aimed at the life market.
UK markets were following a lead set by their US counterparts.
The FTSE 100 was down 1.75% by mid morning on Wednesday, after markets sank in New York, Europe and Japan on Monday.
