China Insurance Assets Rise 2% in May

飞雪寒冰

Assets of China's insurance industry rose two percent month-on-month in May to 3.62 trillion yuan, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission said.

The industry's assets allocated to investment rose to 2.25 trillion yuan from 2.2 trillion at the end of April and 2.22 trillion at the end of March, while deposits rose to 1.05 trillion yuan from 1.04 trillion a month earlier, the regulator said in a statement published on its Web site.

China's stock market has risen over 60 percent in 2009, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index jumping 6.27 percent in May.

China's insurers generated premium income of 495 billion yuan in the first five months of 2009, which included 120.9 billion yuan in property insurance premiums and 342.1 billion yuan in life insurance premiums, the statement said.

Premiums from health and accident insurance products totaled 22.5 billion yuan and 9.5 billion, respectively, in the five months.

飞雪寒冰

The statement gave no comparative figures, but according to data released earlier by the CIRC, the insurance sector booked combined premium income of 414 billion yuan in the first four months and 327.7 billion in the first quarter.

China's top four insurers, which are all listed, have already submitted their respective premium income reports.

China Life Insurance Co. (SH 601628; HK 2628), the country's largest insurer, reported premiums of 145.6 billion yuan in the first five months on 2009, down 3.9 percent year-on-year.

Second-largest player Ping An Insurance Group Co. of China (SH 601318; HK 2318) said its premiums income rose 35 percent year-on-year to 77 billion yuan in the first five months.

China Pacific Insurance Group Co. (SH 601601) said premium income fell 1.8 percent year-on-year to 44.8 billion yuan.

PICC Property & Casualty Co. (HK 2328) received premiums of 53.6 billion yuan during the January-May period, up 13.8 percent from a year earlier.