(Yicai Global) Jan. 30 -- China Life Insurance, China's biggest insurer, expects its profit dived between 50 percent and 70 percent last year as the country's worst stock market performance in a decade hampered its investment income.

The Beijing-based firm pegs its 2018 net profit attributable to shareholders at between CNY16.1 billion (USD2.4 billion) and CNY22.6 billion, it said in a statement yesterday. That compares with CNY32.3 billion in 2017, up 68.6 percent from the year prior.

The insurer is expected to release its actual results around March or April.

China Life was performing on par during the first half of last year, but took a tumble in the second half as the nation's stock markets slumped, with the Shanghai Composite Index skydiving 24.6 percent over the course of 2018. The smaller Shenzhen bourse's benchmark slipped 33.2 percent as the two indexes lost USD2.4 trillion in market capitalization.

China Life's provision for assets impairment was CNY5.6 billion over the first three quarters of last year, up 155.6 percent from the same period a year earlier, according to its earlier report covering the period.

Editor: James Boynton