Provexis Share News (PXS)

Life insurance stocks were on the rise on Thursday afternoon, helped by FTSE 100 savings, investment and insurance group Old Mutual.Shares in Old Mutual roared higher on Thursday after announcing that it is to sell its Nordic business Skandia AB for £2.1bn in an effort to "reduce complexity" and pay down debt. According to Chief Executive Julian Roberts, "This Transaction represents a material step in the execution of our restructuring programme. We intend to use the proceeds from the sale to accelerate the reduction in group borrowings and to return surplus capital arising from the Transaction to shareholders." Old Mutual's shares were trading 11.62% higher at 123.9p by 15:11. Meanwhile, sector peers Standard Life, Prudential, Legal & General, Phoenix, St. James's Place and Aviva all followed suit.Small cap life assurance firm Chesnara was also higher after revealing additional synergies arising from the transfer of acquired businesses in December 2010 into its subsidiary (which were not previously reflected in embedded value assumptions). These will have a "positive effect" on its financial results in 2011, the firm said.In contrast, the food producers and processors sector was out of favour, with stocks nudging an average of 0.17% lower.Sorbic International was down 8.5%, pulling back from yesterday's strong performance. Shares got a boost on Wednesday after the preservatives producer said it is ready to chase market share in 2012 when its new facility in Inner Mongolia will double production capacity. Sector peers Provexis, Hilton Food Group and Robert Wiseman Dairies also fell.BCTop performing sectors so far todayForestry & Paper 4,745.86 +3.16%Life Insurance 3,676.91 +2.87%Industrial Engineering 6,799.08 +2.17%Construction & Materials 3,155.17 +2.01%Electricity 8,086.41 +1.55%Bottom performing sectors so far todayFood Producers & Processors 5,471.03 -0.17%Health Care Equipment & Services 3,299.58 -0.11%