Thursday, 26 February 2009

Insurance Company Stock Performance



We all know stocks are down and that the financial services sector has been hit the hardest, but I thought it interesting to note the relative performance of the commercial (re)insurance underwriters.

The chart shows that amazingly there are 2 firms in Odyssey Re and Navigators that are up in market cap in the last 12 months.

Unsurprisingly, the firms most in the news including AIG, Hartford, XL & Swiss Re are the firms losing more than 80% of market cap.

I believe the prices reflect investor's opinions of the investment performance and exposure to credit insurance more than underwriting performance, but those underwriting loss ratios will be a big driver of market cap growth as the big claims from subprime and the credit crisis make their way through the system and reserves are set.

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