Ping An returns to profit in Q3, misses forecasts
BEIJING/HONG KONG, Oct 27 (Reuters) - China's Ping An Insurance (2318.HK), the world's No. 2 life insurer by market value, swung to a quarterly profit as a recovery in markets since last year boosted investment returns.
Net profit in the July-September quarter was 2.58 billion yuan ($378 million), against a previously reported loss of 7.88 billion yuan a year earlier, based on a report issued through the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
That compared with the average 2.96 billion yuan that four analysts polled by Reuters were expecting Ping An (601318.SS) to earn.
China's stock market .SSEC, in which Ping An puts a portion of its investments, rallied in the first half of the year. It then shed 6 percent in the third quarter as investors worried about a possible tightening of monetary policy after a surge in lending and government-led investment.
Ping An's shares fell 0.97 percent to HK$71.4 in Hong Kong on Tuesday ahead of the results. The stock has nearly doubled so far this year, outperforming a 60 percent gain in the benchmark Hang Seng Index .HSI.
Ping An's larger rival China Life Insurance Co (2628.HK) reported a day earlier that third-quarter earnings more than doubled as it benefited from a stock market recovery. [ID:nPEK296325]
(Reporting by Michael Wei and Doug Young; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman, John Stonestreet)
