Half life

Aviva must have hoped that investors would cheer its decision to pay a dividend for last year. The world’s fifth biggest insurer might also have expected some appreciation for adopting conservative accounting policies for its latest results. But after briefly nudging up its share price on Thursday, the market wiped about 30% off the company’s value. Such are the rewards of transparency. The group posted a manageable pre-tax loss of £153m under IFRS, against £1.5bn net profit last year. Its solv...