LONDON, March 11 (Reuters) - Shares in European insurers
fell sharply in early trading on Friday after Japan was hit by a
massive earthquake, one of the biggest ever recorded.
The quake, which measured 8.9 on the richter scale, hit off
the northeastern coast and caused a 10-metre-high tsunami to hit
the coast. There was little news on casualties but local media
said four million homes were without power. [ID:nL3E7EB0MF]
Large reinsurers -- Swiss Re (RUKN.VX), Hannover Re
(HNRGn.DE) and Munich Re (MUVGn.DE) -- were all down more than 4
percent, off their early lows with detail still scant.
"It is too early to tell what the impact will be. The
situation is still unclear and is fluid. We are unable to say
anything at the moment. It usually takes one to two weeks until
we can tell what the impact will be," Tom Armitage, a spokesman
for Swiss Re said.
"Japan is within the top 10 of our markets. Swiss Re
generated a total of $688 million in life and non-life in Japan
out of a total of $25 billion globally," he said.
British, French and German insurers were also among the
casualties in early trade, with Aviva (AV.L) down more than 2
percent, Allianz (ALVG.DE) down 1.7 percent and Axa (AXAF.PA)
down 1.3 percent against a 1.8 percent fall in the wider STOXX
Europe 600 Insurance index .SXIP.
"The (insurance) sector is down slightly more than the
overall market as the quake in Japan heaps more misery on a
sector hit by the severe weather in the UK last year," Mic
Mills, head of electronic trading at ETX Capital, said.
(Additional reporting by Christoph Steitz in Frankfurt, Katie
Reid in Zurich and Tricia Wright in London; Editing by Dan
Lalor)
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