Prominent insurance-linked funds logged their best daily gains in years on Friday, even as Hurricane Irma was ready to lash deadly rains and winds at Florida, among a trio of powerful storms brewing in the Atlantic. Still, PowerShares KBW Property & Casualty Insurance Portfolio jumped 3.7% on Friday, matching the exchanged-traded fund’s best one-day rise since Nov. 30, 2011, according to FactSet data. All of its components finished in the green, led by a nearly 7% gain in shares of Maiden Holdings Ltd. and a 5.8% rise in XL Group Ltd.. A component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average , Travelers Cos. Inc. , rallied 4%, its best day in about five years, since Dec. 5, 2012. Its gain alone added about 30 points to the price-weighted Dow’s tepid climb on Friday. Other popular insurance closed sharply higher. The SPDR S&P Insurance ETF ended up 2.8% and the iShares U.S. Insurance ETF closed 2.6% higher. Despite, Friday’s odd gains, most of the insurer funds were set to log steep declines. The property and casualty ETF booked a 3.4% weekly decline, the iShares insurance fund slumped 1.8% drop for the period, while the SPDR insurance registered a weekly decline of 2.8%. Winds from Hurricane Irma, already the most powerful Atlantic hurricane on record, on Friday picked up steam as it barreled toward Florida, prompting Gov. Rick Scott to urge all Floridians to evacuate. The approaching storm comes less than two weeks since Hurricane Harvey devastated much of Houston and parts of Louisiana. Besides Irma, hurricanes Katia and Jose are also swirling in the Atlantic. In broader markets, the S&P 500 index closed off 0.2% at 2,461, while the Nasdaq Composite Index ended down 0.6%. The Dow finished in the green on back of Travelers. The insurance giant wiped out its weekly decline to show slight weekly advance. One rationale for insurer gains on the day is the hope that Irma will produce less damaging floodwaters and lasting damage, compared with Harvey.
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