Insurers downgraded by Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley downgraded ING Groep NV, Standard Life PLC and Aegon NV to “underweight” from “equal weight,” expecting more challenges ahead for the insurers, Reuters reported. “We believe that the insurers are cyclically challenged, rather than needing to reinvent the business model because of the market,” Jon Hocking, a Morgan Stanley analyst, wrote in a note to clients. A combination of difficult equity markets, wide spreads on corporate bonds and falling interest rates has battered life carriers, he said. Mr. Hocking also observed that the non-life insurance business will continue to beat its life insurance counterpart as non-life carriers have used their balance sheets to take large capital markets risk, focusing on higher-quality investment income, he wrote. Allianz SE of Munich, Germany, has was also upgraded to “overweight” from “equal weight” and added to New York-based Morgan Stanley’s preferred list. ING and Aegon are based in the Netherlands; ING in Amsterdam and Aegon in The Hague. Standard Life is based in Edinburgh, Scotland.