HARTFORD, Conn. – Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. said Wednesday that it lost $15 million in the second quarter, weighed down by losses on investments and a decline in premiums.

For the period ended June 30, the Hartford, Conn.-based insurance and financial services firm posted a loss of 6 cents per share. That compares with a profit of $543 million, or $1.73 per share, a year earlier.

On an adjusted basis, core earnings came in at $622 million, or $1.90 per share, down 11 percent from $696 million, or $2.22 a share, in the second quarter of 2008.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, on average, had been expecting earnings of $1.16 per share. Analyst estimates tend to exclude one-time, unusual items.

Shares rose 20 cents to finish regular trading Wednesday at $14.96. After hours, when the earnings report was released, shares tacked on 32 cents, rising 2 percent to $15.28.

Results were an improvement over the first quarter, when the company reported a bigger-than-expected loss of $1.2 billion as stock market declines forced The Hartford to lower estimates of future life insurance gross profits.

As the financial markets improved during the second quarter, results benefited from a $360 million, or $1.11 per share, after-tax gain related to the revision of its estimates of future gross profits in its life insurance operations. The Standard & Poor s 500 index jumped 15 percent during the second quarter, as improving economic data stirred a renewed sense of optimism in the market and stoked beliefs that the recession could end this year.

Still, the company reported a $649 million net realized capital loss, much more than the $156 million net realized capital loss recorded in the year-earlier period. The loss stemmed mostly from impairments on certain investments totaling $207 million, and a $300 million charge related to the closing of an investment agreement with the U.S. Treasury Department in June.

Net investment income fell 17 percent from the prior-year period to $1 billion, hurt by losses from limited partnerships and other alternative investments, the company said.

Written premiums for The Hartford s property and casualty operations in the second quarter were about $2.5 billion, down 5 percent from the second quarter of 2008.

Total assets under management declined 15 percent to $352.07 billion from $416.27 billion in the second quarter of last year.

The improvement in the equity markets during the second quarter boosted The Hartford s mutual fund business, the company said. Mutual fund deposits exceeded $3 billion for the first time since the third quarter of 2008.

Also Wednesday, the company narrowed its full-year guidance. The Hartford currently expects 2009 core earnings to be between break-even and 20 cents per share. Previously, the company forecast for core earnings between 5 cents and 45 cents per share.

Analysts are anticipating a loss per share of 21 cents for the year.

In the past two years, insurers have seen their investment portfolios slammed by declines in stocks, real estate and other financial assets. That fanned worries that some insurers would fall below required capital levels, which could result in costly downgrades from ratings agencies.

Subsequently, shares in the sector took a beating. Investors fears escalated as the companies awaited approval from the government to participate in the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP.

Finally in May, the government gave six life insurers, including Hartford, the OK to tap its $700 billion bailout program.

Hartford received $3.4 billion in late June. Besides Hartford, only Lincoln National Corp. accepted funds.

Hartford s shares have more than quadrupled from an all-time low of $3.33 hit in early March. But shares are still down about 9 percent for the year.