Prudential Plc, the UK's largest insurance company by premiums, climbed 6.5 percent. Axa SA, Europe's second-biggest insurance company, added 7.1 percent over the past five days after saying Tuesday that first-half operating profit unexpectedly rose 6 percent.
Munich Re rose 1.4 percent to 97.80 euros yesterday, extending its gain for the week to 5.4 percent. Morgan Stanley advised investors to pare holdings in Allianz AG, Europe's largest insurance company, in favor of Munich Re.
Allianz
Allianz fell 3.1 percent to 85.35 euros after the brokerage described the insurer's shares as "fully valued." The shares have fallen 0.5 percent in the past week. Allianz has gained 4.1 percent this year, compared with Munich Re's 14 percent decline.
Julius Baer surged 8.4 percent to 376 Swiss francs. The company said it will cut costs by more than 11 percent this year after first-half profit fell 86 percent to 16 million Swiss francs (US$12 million) from a year earlier.
Hagemeyer NV, which distributes industrial-safety products, led the week's gains on the Stoxx 600, adding 35 percent. The 102 year-old Dutch company advanced after saying Monday that banks agreed to discuss keeping open a 1.2 billion-euro (US$1.4 billion) line of credit.
"The risk of bankruptcy has been holding back the share price but it has been wildly overstated," said Arjan Sweere, an analyst at Petercam Nederland who rates Hagemeyer "buy," on Thursday. "The valuation has been ridiculously low."
Bang & Olufsen A/S, a Danish maker of luxury televisions and stereo systems founded in 1925, surged 18 percent yesterday to 213 euros after saying it expects pretax profit to climb as much as 14 percent this fiscal year and doubled its dividend. It gained 15 percent in the week.
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