Confidence in the UK insurance sector was blown away with a profit warning from Munich Re of Germany, which said that plunging equity and bond values would hurt returns on its investments. Legal & General took the biggest hit, down 7.1p at 98.6p, but RSA Insurancelost 6½p to 128.8p and Aviva fell 21½p to 490p. Confidence was not helped by German rival Hannover Re saying that it too could miss profit targets if the markets continued to lose ground. Plummeting equity prices have been exacerbated by recent falls in bond prices, partly driven by inflation fears. The insurance shock dragged the FTSE down 70.9 points at one stage before some reassuring economic figures from the US helped it rally, to close down 9.7 points at 5,352.6. Royal Bank of Scotland, which is trying to sell its insurance business amid growing talk that it...
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