Sydney, Feb 27, 2026, 18:24 AEDT — The market’s done for the day.
- IAG settled at A$6.61 on Friday, slipping 0.2% for the session and booking a 6.6% loss for the week.
- PERILS has pegged initial industry losses from the January Victoria bushfires at A$786 million.
- Attention now shifts to claims and capital updates, as IAG’s interim dividend lands on March 13.
Insurance Australia Group Ltd closed out Friday at A$6.61, slipping 0.23% for the session. That eased the pace of losses from earlier in the week, but didn’t undo the damage; shares have fallen roughly 6.6% since last Friday’s close after a string of rough days.
With Australia’s market closed until Monday, investors are zeroing in on catastrophe-loss news, gauging what it could mean for claims and reinsurance costs sector-wide. On Thursday, catastrophe data firm PERILS set its initial insurance market loss figure for the Victoria bushfires (Jan. 7–13) at A$786 million. The company plans to release an updated estimate April 13.
IAG has been quick to react to anything affecting claims, especially after highlighting increased weather-related costs and weaker investment income at its half-year update earlier this month. “Various major hailstorms and severe weather events … resulted in significant claims for insurers,” CEO Nick Hawkins said at the time. The company kept its full-year insurance profit target in place and announced a A$200 million buyback. (Natural peril costs refer to claims from events like storms, floods and bushfires.) Reuters
Trading ran flat late in the session, with the S&P/ASX 200 ticking up just 0.03% by Friday’s close.
Income-focused shareholders are watching IAG, with its interim dividend of 12 Australian cents having gone ex-dividend Feb. 17, market data show. The payout lands March 13.
The dividend and buyback offer a nudge to sentiment at the edges, but the real story for general insurers remains the scale and timing of catastrophe losses—and crucially, how much of that ends up with reinsurers instead of staying on insurers’ own balance sheets.
Bulls face a clear risk here: if claims from late-summer weather come in above forecasts—or if bushfire and storm loss estimates increase as more data comes in—earnings expectations could take a hit, leaving the stock stuck around its recent lows.
QBE and Suncorp, among IAG’s domestic rivals, often track the same shifts in peril-related costs. When trading resumes, expect sector-wide moves to draw as much attention from investors as any single company story.
On deck: the Monday open, fresh catastrophe claims news from companies or the sector, and those two key dates investors are tracking — IAG’s dividend lands March 13, while PERILS has an April 13 loss update scheduled.
