Having fallen below €5.70 as recently as November, shares in FBD Holdings have rallied strongly over the last month and a half to hit €7.50 last week, the highest point since August 2015.

FBD shares are currently trading around the €7.20 mark.

The improvement in the FBD share price is primarily a result of growing market expectation that the insurer has stabilised and returned to profitability in the second half of 2016.

FBD is due to report its full-year financial results for 2016 at the end of February and the market appears to be pricing in a return to profit at the group.

Insurance rates

FBD has said its insurance rates increased almost 11% on average in the first half of 2016. It is expected that this trend has continued into the second half of the year.

This should help return its core underwriting business to profit for the second half of 2016, which would see the group break even for its 2016 financial year. FBD has stated that it will not pay a dividend for 2016.