LONDON (Bloomberg) Hiscox Ltd, the second-biggest Lloyd’s of London insurer by market value, said first-quarter sales fell eight percent amid a “tough” market.Gross written premiums declined to 453.5 million pounds ($743.4 million) in the year to March 31 compared with 504.1 million pounds a year earlier, the Bermuda-based firm said today in a statement.“We continue to underwrite for profit over volume in these tough market conditions,” chief executive officer Bronek Masojada said in the statement.Hiscox, like other Lloyd’s insurers, was hurt by Japan’s biggest earthquake on record earlier this year, estimated to cost the industry between $21 billion and $34 billion, according to catastrophe modeler Risk Management Solutions. Earthquakes in New Zealand and flooding in Australia at the end of 2010 and beginning of this year had already dented insurers’ catastrophe reserves before the Japanese quake on March 11.Hiscox said its claims estimate for the New Zealand earthquake was unchanged at 60 million pounds. Its claims estimate for the Japanese earthquake was also unchanged at between $60 million and $150 million.Hiscox’s shares were down 2.1 pence, or 0.5 percent, to 414.1 pence at 9:13 a.m. in London.