Sector movers: RSA, Jardine Lloyd Thompson and Direct Line drag non-life insurers lower
Non-life insurers were out of favour on Tuesday as a broker downgrade at RSA and a cool reaction to results from Jardine Lloyd Thompson and Direct Line weighed on sentiment.
Admiral Group
2,837.00p
17:05 28/03/24
Beazley
665.50p
16:34 28/03/24
Direct Line Insurance Group
195.05p
16:40 28/03/24
FTSE 100
7,952.62
17:14 28/03/24
FTSE 250
19,884.73
17:14 28/03/24
FTSE 350
4,383.21
17:14 28/03/24
FTSE All-Share
4,338.05
16:50 28/03/24
Hiscox Limited (DI)
1,240.00p
16:45 28/03/24
Insurance (non-life)
3,758.55
17:14 28/03/24
Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group
1,914.00p
16:34 29/03/19
Lancashire Holdings Limited
619.00p
16:40 28/03/24
RSA Insurance Group Limited
684.20p
16:54 28/05/21
General insurer RSA was trading 2.7% lower after analysts at Bernstein lowered their rating on the stock from 'outperform' to 'market perform', cutting their target price for the shares from 475p to 451p.
Panmure Gordon and Berenberg also cut their targets for RSA's shares on Tuesday.
Insurer, reinsurer and services outfit Jardine Lloyd Thompson dropped 1.8% after underwhelming investors with its 2014 results, which broadly met analysts' expectations. Underlying pre-tax profit was up 3% at £183m on revenues 13% higher at £1.10bn.
The company did acknowledge that the insurance rating environment is currently "challenging" but said it was confident in its revenue growth momentum.
Direct Line also declined 0.5% after striking a cautious tone on the outlook for UK motor and home insurance markets.
The company reported a 12% increase in full-year profits to £456.8m, but said that the "markets remain highly competitive with recent market conditions characterised by periods of market price deflation and of stability".
Sector peers Admiral, Beazley, Lancashire, Esure, Hiscox and Admiral were also out of favour.
Top performing sectors so far today
Oil Equipment, Services & Distribution 18,288.27 +2.23%
Industrial Transportation 2,770.12 +0.41%
Mobile Telecommunications 5,113.01 +0.36%
General Industrials 4,425.68 +0.25%
Tobacco 44,386.56 +0.25%
Bottom performing sectors so far today
Health Care Equipment & Services 6,665.70 -2.93%
Construction & Materials 4,777.26 -1.45%
Automobiles & Parts 8,372.61 -1.43%
Support Services 6,927.50 -1.18%
Insurance (non-life) 2,058.10 -1.17%