Stockwatch

The week's winners
Marsh up 9.2%
Kiln up 3.3%

The week's losers
Zurich Financial Services down 30.6%
Royal & SunAlliance down 20.2%

The market's manic swings go on as investors abandon the sector, then flood back in. Monday's rush back in sent the FTSE 100 jumping 15% and insurers glittered in some of the best performing roles.

It all adds up to fairly convincing evidence in favour of consultant Oliver Laughton-Scott's argument (see p10-11) that the market crash is good news for insurance brokers.

Jardine Lloyd Thompson chief executive Steve McGill put it succinctly: "Insurers need to replenish their balance sheets and they need to do it through focused and disciplined underwriting."

And we know what that means. Rates staying hard for longer.

McGill has reason to watch the market carefully. He says that if you invest £100 into JLT and reinvest the dividend income, "we are the seventh best performing stock on the whole of the London stock market over the last decade".

And sure enough, the broker's stock was gaining ground this week, up by 4% on Monday and another 2% on Tuesday after its interim results.

But other brokers were doing well, too.

Willis was up by 2.2% in New York at the same time as it, too, posted results showing a strong underlying performance.

So will the good times keep rolling?

As long as investment returns remain low, there's every reason for insurance rates to stay high.

The message has certainly been heard over at Lloyd's, where rumours abound of at least one new syndicate being launched.

But, some big insurance companies are carrying heavy losses in their stock portfolios. They are going to continue to suffer.

Rowena Potter, managing director of ratings agency Standard & Poor's, said on Tuesday: "The outlook on up to 50% of all life and non-life European insurers is now negative."