In the two days since XL boss Brian O'Hara resigned as a director of Security Capital Assurance its shares have rocketed by around 50 percent.

Shares of SCA, which is a spin-off from XL Capital, have been in the doldrums but not any longer.

And the resignation of Mr. O'Hara is being seen as the spark that lit the fuse and has seen the share price bounce from an all-time low of around $4 last week to $6.69 at the close of yesterday's market.

The shares have a long way to go to regain the heady heights of $34 which they were valued at in May this year before sub-prime concerns pummeled the company's shares value. However, the new improvement - which worked out at 26 percent yesterday - is marked.

It comes as speculation grows that XL is about to inject new capital into its spin-off, something that is more likely now that Mr. O'Hara has left the board of directors and therefore avoids a conflict of interest in any future investment.

Mr. O'Hara is also due to retire as XL CEO next summer.

A report by MarketWatch, which was made in San Francisco, noted: "Downgrades of collateralised debt obligations in recent months have sparked worries that bond insurers like SCA won't have enough extra capital to keep their crucial AAA ratings.

"The three main rating agencies, Standard & Poor's, Moody's Investors Service and Fitch, are reviewing bond insurers' capital adequacy and should complete the task by the end of this month or early December. Moody's and Fitch said earlier this month there's a "moderate" risk that SCA will face capital-adequacy pressures."

XL Capital retains a 46 percent stake in XL.

The MarketWatch report quotes Tamara Kravec, an analyst at Banc of America Securities, as saying: "SCA announced that the departure (of Mr. O'Hara) was friendly, citing conflict of interest as the primarily reason for the resignation.

"This allows the door to swing open for XL Capital to step in and possibly infuse capital into SCA.

"We would be not surprised to hear that SCA has been engaging XL Capital in the discussion of SCA's capital needs," she said.

According to the report a spokesman for SCA declined to comment and an XL Capital representatives didn't immediately return calls seeking comment late on Wednesday.