Insurance firm Amlin has returned profit after suffering crushing losses last year, sending shares up nearly 5%.
The company saw pretax profits soar to £184.5m in the six months to June 30 thanks to far fewer natural disasters compared with a year ago.
In 2011 the Japanese tsunami, New Zealand earthquake and flooding in Thailand left the Lloyds of London insurer with a pretax loss of £194m.
The company which specialises in commercial insurance and reinsurance saw renewal rates increase due to the high number of disasters last year, up 9.6% in the US and 16.2% in the rest of the world.
The interim dividend has also risen 4.2% to 7.5p a share.
Chief executive Charles Philipps said:
This is a welcome return to profit and the strength of our underwriting result underlines the quality and diversity of our business. The improving trading environment is creating many opportunities for profitable growth, for which we have both the capital and the underwriting capability to take advantage.
Global insurers suffered losses of $116 billion in 2011 after a slew of natural disasters leading to a surge in claims.
Shares are up 18.5p, 4.9%, at 399.6p as the results beat analysts' expectations.
