Stockwatch: Scor rises despite downgrade
Market responded positively to Scor's one-year action plan
Insurance stocks prove resilient in a negative week for equities as Beazley set to enter FTSE 100
Shares in Scor surged 8.4% in the week to December 8, despite the French giant suffering a chastening rating downgrade on Wednesday.
Fitch downgraded Scor’s financial strength ratings to ‘A+’ from ‘AA-’, citing continued weak financial performance and profitability “not commensurate” with an AA rating.
However, the markets appeared to pay more credence to the firm’s one-year action plan to improve profitability, which was announced earlier this month.
The plan was lent credibility by Fitch, which painted a promising picture of recovery in 2023. Extremely well capitalised and with a favourable business profile, Fitch expects Scor to “maintain its very strong global franchise as it implements its improvement plan”.
Elsewhere, insurance stocks proved fairly resilient in a negative week for equities, with Insurance Day’s Europe (+1.65%), Bermuda (-2%) and Lloyd’s (+1%) sub-groups outperforming the Stoxx Europe 600 (-0.9%), S&P 500 (-3.6%) and FTSE 100 indexes (-1.1%).
Beazley will enter the FTSE 100 on December 19, having grown its value an impressive 37.6% in 2022.
Hiscox (+2.8%) was the top performer at Lloyd’s this week, however, spurred by the purchase of £100,000-worth of shares by its chief executive, Aki Hussain.
With Lancashire (+1.4%) also continuing its good recent run, the three Lloyd’s stocks are the top-performing sub-group of the year, up 23.5% on average.
In Bermuda, Argo Group’s stock whipsawing continued as the Bermuda-based firm sank 3.4%, worsening its return to -54.8% for the year to date, while RenaissanceRe (-3.5%) and SiriusPoint (-3.4%) also lost ground.
