Shares of insurance companies saw broad gains Monday, with many posting double-digit percentage-point increases, as investors bought into stocks that had seen a steady decline in recent weeks.

The sector also saw more national insurers, including The Travelers Cos. and Principal Financial Group Inc., preannounce third-quarter results, some including investment losses.

Travelers said it expects the effects of Hurricanes Ike, Gustav and Dolly to hurt its pretax earnings in the third quarter by $1.05 billion.

The Minnesota-based insurer also said it recorded third-quarter net realized investment losses of $170 million pretax, which includes impairments of $67 million pretax due to securities issued by failed investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.

In total, the company expects these items to reduce its operating income by about 80 cents per share and net income by about $1 per share in the third quarter.

Shares of Travelers gained $4.39, or 14.3 percent, to $34.89 in afternoon trading.

Retirement, insurance and financial firm Principal Financial Group said it expects its operating earnings results to fall within range of Wall Street expectations. The Iowa-based company expects to earn between 92 cents and 97 cents per share for the most recent quarter.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, on average, forecast earnings of 95 cents per share.

Principal Financial shares rose $3.69, or 20.3 percent, to $21.89.

The insurance sector stood out, even amid a bullish afternoon for Wall Street. All the major indexes rose, and the Dow Jones industrials gained more than 700 points. The Standard & Poor's 500 index advanced more than 8 percent to 978.27.

The hope on Wall Street was that the market was finding some footing after eight sessions of devastating losses that sent the Dow down nearly 2,400 points.

Shares of several national insurers had fallen steadily since at least mid-September, as broader financial markets grew shaky and the government stepped in to bail out failing insurance giant American International Group Inc.

Analysts have expressed some concern about some of the companies' investment portfolios and feared that insurers may need to raise capital to avoid damaging downgrades from rating agencies.

Among other national insurers, shares of AIG gained 8 cents, or 3 percent, to $2.41; Genworth Financial Inc. shot up $2.58, or 74.5 percent, to $6.12; Prudential Financial Inc. rose $13.83, or 38 percent, to $49.91; Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. gained $5.17, or 27 percent, to $24.40.

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