The week's winners
St Paul up 8%
Chaucer up 3.2%
The week's losers
Royal & SunAlliance down 15.4%
Domestic & General down 13.1%
Bob Gunn is a under pressure. The acting group chief executive of Royal & SunAlliance knows this week is likely to be critical in his efforts to rescue the company from the doldrums into which it has sunk.
Its share price slumped to around 70p and the market has three days to digest its results (due out today) before the FTSE-100 is reviewed, using data at close of trading on 11 March.
For R&SA to drop out would be a huge psychological blow, following the indignity of losing an
A- credit rating when Fitch downgraded the company.
Our report this week on its pension schemes makes clear the company will be saddled with hugely increased pension costs at least for the next year, but the deficits are not nearly as bad as some have predicted.
However, the fund managers may need more reassurance than that before they start buying the stock.
In the meantime, Jardine Lloyd Thompson is snapping at R&SA's heels for a place in the FTSE-100.
Chief executive Steve McGill is already a paper millionaire several times over and 20 other senior figures are sitting on life-changing personal stakes.
But even such success could be beaten by staff at Benfield, who own a whopping 80% of their company, which is due to float later this year.
Insurers are busy, too - Creechurch is also said to be eyeing up a £70m
AIM flotation as an alternative to starting an FSA-regulated company as soon as May, according to some reports.
