Insurance giant Aviva has warned of "more muted" growth this year as it faces Brexit uncertainty.

The FTSE 100 company - which is the UK's largest insurer - said it would be "difficult to sustain" the level of earnings growth seen over the last two years.

The warning came as rival insurer Admiral revealed it had planned for a potential recession as it assessed the impact of Brexit.

Meanwhile, beleaguered estate agent chain Countrywide said uncertainty over Britain's departure from the EU was also affecting its fortunes - with a weak property market in the South expected to knock up to £5m off first-half profits.

Aviva's warning came as it reported a 2% rise in its headline operating profit measure for 2018 to £3.12bn, buoyed by better performance across its major markets including the UK, where it also benefited from a watering down of new rules on personal injury claim payments.


But finance director Thomas Stoddard said: "Given current uncertainties, including the unknown future impacts of Brexit on the economies of the United Kingdom and Europe, our near-term outlook entering 2019 is more muted than our outlook a year ago."

He said that while Aviva had achieved 7% growth in its key measure of earnings per share in each of the last two years, it would be "difficult to sustain this momentum in 2019".

Mr Stoddard pointed to factors including weak investment markets at the end of last year as among the factors that could weigh on results.

Shares were 4% lower in morning trading and closed the day 3.3% down.

Meanwhile, Admiral said it had performed a stress test "for its Brexit assessment of the impact of a recession through 2019 on the UK insurance business" - saying the results showed it could manage the disruption.

It warned of the potential impact of Britain's departure from the EU on market volatility, free movement of people between the UK and EU, and the import of car parts on its business.

The company added that it had restructured its European insurance and price comparison businesses ensuring trade regardless of the outcome.

It has spent €3.5m (£3m) setting up a Brexit hub in Spain.

The details came as Admiral reported an 18% rise in pre-tax profits to £479m.

Its shares were down almost 5%.

Elsewhere, Countrywide racked up annual losses of £218m for 2018, blamed on one-off costs - and acknowledged that 2018 had been "one of the most challenging years" it had ever faced.

Executive chairman Peter Long said market weakness seen at the end of last year "due to the further uncertainties surrounding Brexit" had continued into this year.

"As a result, we are experiencing further slowdown in residential and commercial property transactions particularly in London and the South," Mr Long said.

These were expected to knock £3m to £5m off underlying earnings in the first half of the year, he added.

Shares in the company - which has been under pressure over a botched restructuring and issued a series of profit warnings last year - were down 13%.