The week's winners
SVB up 9.9%
Chaucer up 9.7%
Domestic & General up 9.2%
The week's losers
Hardy Underwriting down 6.4%
Jardine Lloyd Thompson down 3.9%
It was a busy week on the exchange for Chaucer, with three large dealings in its stock just before Tuesday's announcement that gross written premiums were up 53% so far this year.
The group confirmed plans to merge three syndicates for next year, with an initial capacity of £400m, as exclusively revealed in Insurance Times earlier this month.
Chase lifted its holding in Chaucer to 9.5% after buying just over 10 million shares in the Lloyd's group, or 3.5% of its stock.
Chase's optimism was not shared by Parsimony, which sold a similar sized holding, of 10 million shares, taking its interest down to 2.38%.
But Lehman Brothers, the global finance group that last week reported profits that surged by 48% in the second quarter, also took a significant chunk of Chaucer, buying a 3.45% stake.
However, Brit chief Neil Eckert wins the prize for unflinching faith in his own company.
He bought 3,650,000 shares in his group, at a market price of 80p, making his investment worth a face value of £2.9m.
Not to be left out, fellow Lloyd's operator Amlin was the subject of some notable trading, with fund giant Fidelity beefing up its holding in the group to nearly 4 million shares among its various subsidiaries.
It now owns a grand total of 12.1% in Amlin.
Riding high at the top of our winners' table this week is SVB.
The insurer is benefiting from two positive analysts' notes and the feeling that its US liability losses are finally becoming history.
Altium Capital tipped it as a buy, with analyst Dilip Shah writing of SVB's recent £70m fundraising as the "final hurdle" in the strengthening of its balance sheet.
Ratings agency Moody's boosted its outlook on two SVB syndicates and the group made the buy list of KBC Peel Hunt, whose only 'sell' in the quoted Lloyd's sector is on Brit.
The analyst commented: "The takeover of PRI is a rights issue with casualty underwriters thrown in, so the Brit juggernaut needs to make ROE hay while the sun is shining."
