Hello Share Splashers. Insurance can be counted as a defensive investment when times are hard, as they are now. People are drawn to increasing their security when world economies are in trouble. One of the biggest insurers is Aviva (AV.) with a market cap of more than £11 billion. And with size comes strength. Too big to fail?
It might be August, but Thursday is always a busy day for anyone following stock market updates. Today I could write (again) about TUI (TUI) or Entain (ENT) but frankly I said enough on the former back in May, and today’s update may be talking about rising numbers of holidaymakers (but it is still making a loss and has a bunch of corporate debt). Meanwhile the latter has been a really good holding for me over the last 20 months, albeit after a dodgy start. As I previously noted, I still conclude that taking profits over recent months has been very sensible, but it is fine to run a few still (as I do) if you wish. Today though I am going to write more about Aviva (AV.).
It has been a great last year for my investment in Aviva (AV.), shares in which have risen from just over 250p to above 400p in the last month or so. Certainly my view back in February was that the sale of its business in France, Poland, Italy and part of Asia struck me as a very sensible move. The completion of these deals is still set for later in the year – along with the anticipated return of capital. Elsewhere, ‘our positive trading performance in the first quarter of 2021 reinforces our confidence in the targets we announced earlier in the year...we still have much more to do, to deliver stronger returns for our shareholders’, which sounds like good movement.
