Stockwatch

The week's winners
Allianz up 17.1%
Highway up 11%

The week's losers
Amlin down 2.5%
Hardy down 1.7%

Underwriters at Lloyd's are in a position to make hay. But Rolf Tolle is out to make sure that today's harvest doesn't collapse into tomorrow's disaster.

The market's franchise performance director, the man whose job it is to prevent Lloyd's falling back into the losses that dogged it for over a decade, laid out his top three areas of concern.

They were: underwriters' realistic disaster scenarios; exposure management; and account aggregation.

In other words, Tolle's fear is that syndicates' enthusiasm to write business while prices are strong could lead them to ignore the dangers of catastrophes and overlapping risks.

The focus is on claims rather than prices. Such an approach will protect the central fund while its reinsurance is under question.

But it may also suggest a welcome attempt to defend the market against the sort of boom and bust cycles that have been a feature for so long. The franchise board has already rejected one syndicate business plan, while editing and altering many more.

Any underwriters still playing double or quits in an attempt to write their way out of WTC, liability and investment losses could be in for a rude shock.

Beyond Lloyd's, eyes will be on R&SA this week and its crucial first quarter performance. The market is relatively bullish - the stock rose 7% to 115p on Tuesday after the long weekend.