The Royal Gazette/Bermuda Stock Exchange Index edged down in light trading as Bermuda Commercial Bank lost ground.

The Index closed down 5.18 points to close at 4,826.00 on volume of 6,193 shares worth $174,158.

Commercial Bank, which last week saw Butterfield Bank withdraw its interest in purchasing it, dropped 50 cents to close at $9 on volume of 1,000 shares.

Butterfield was unchanged at $56 on volume of 1,793.

Insurer BF&M slipped ten cents to $18 on volume of 2,700 shares.

Utility group Belco Holdings was unchanged at $23 as 700 shares traded.

The Bermuda insurance index, which tracks the stocks of Bermuda-based publicly traded insurers and reinsurers edged up 0.46 percent percent to close at 1,183.40.

Trading was mixed, with allied World Assurance, which announced strong results on Wednesday night, gaining 2.32 percent to close at $41.95.

Struggling PXRE jumped 5.32 percent to close at $4.75 after turning a third quarter profit.

Aspen, which released positive projections for 2007, also rose, closing 2.02 percent up at $26.25.

Scottish Re shares tumbled for a second day after French reinsurer Scor ruled itself out of bidding for the troubled life and annuity reinsurer. It closed down 5.56 percent at $8.02.

White Mountains fell 1.86 percent to $566.29 on the day it spun off subsidiary OneBeacon Insurance Ltd. The subsidary raised $600 million for its parent, but the selling price was in the middle of expectations.

Ace Ltd. dropped 1.52 percent to $56.48 and RenRe was down 1.07 percent to $55.39.