Analysts unoptimistic on Chinese insurers' business outlook despite sharp reboun

BEIJING, Jul 09, 2008 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- LFC | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Insurance stocks listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange soared Wednesday and led the strong market rebound together with other big caps.

On Wednesday, China Life (601628.SH) soared by the daily limit up of 10 percent to close at 25.17 yuan, while Ping An (601318.SH) and Pacific Insurance (601601) gained 8.58 percent and 6.79 percent respectively.

The Shanghai composite index went up 3.75 percent to close at 2,920.55 points Wednesday.

In spite of the sharp rebound, quite a few analysts are still unoptimistic on the business outlook of Chinese insurers, and attribute the rebound mainly to their sharp fall in the previous period.

Bearishness of the domestic capital market since the fourth quarter of last year, together with greater pressures to repay claims from many big natural calamities in the country this year, are expected to affect their performance this year.

Guotai Jun'an estimates Chinese insurers' net profit to slide 5 percent in the first half of this year and 6 percent in the whole year.

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