Insurance market Lloyd's of London has seen pre-tax profits halve over the first six months of 2018, a performance it blamed on lower returns on investment.

Pre-tax profits came in at just £600 million, down from £1.2 billion during the same period last year.

Lloyd's reported a "modest increase" in gross written premiums to £19.3 billion, up from £18.9 billion, thanks in part to improvements in pricing.

Lloyd's of London chief executive Inga Beale said: "These results and return to profit demonstrate the strength of the Lloyd's market following one of the costliest years for natural catastrophes in the past decade.

"Whilst these results are welcome, Lloyd's continues to concentrate on improving the Lloyd's market's long-term performance by taking action to address under-performing areas of the market.

"The corporation also remains focused on making the Lloyd's platform more competitive.

"Alongside the success of the mandate for the placement of electronic risks, we have recently launched the Lloyd's Lab, our new innovation accelerator, which will help Lloyd's use technology to better serve our customers around the world.

"We have also worked tirelessly to secure the Lloyd's market's access to the EU27 and our Lloyd's Brussels subsidiary will start writing business in the European Economic Area from January 1 2019."