Stockwatch

The week's winners
Amlin up 4.6%
Highway up 4.3%

The week's losers
Marsh down 15.4%
Royal & SunAlliance down 10.4%

Marsh started to recover its position after taking a sharp dip last week when JP Morgan upgraded the global broker to an "overweight" from "neutral".

It was enough to start a recovery that was needed after Merrill Lynch cut its expectations for the group, sending it downwards.

The stock rose by more than 4% on Tuesday, and was at $38.65 by late afternoon when this column went to press. The downward movement last week had pushed it from $43.03 on Tuesday 1 October to $35.05 by close on Friday 4 October.

By contrast, fellow global broker Willis is up by about 135% on its flotation price when it launched on 12 June last year. Now at $32.42, it launched at $13.50.

Marsh has slipped about 15% over the same period and Aon, trading on Tuesday at $17.81, is down by some 30% over the same period.