(Yicai) Oct. 22 -- Net profit at Ping An Insurance returned to double-digit growth in the January to September period for the first time since 2019, mainly thanks to rising investment returns as China’s stock market picked up and the sale of new policies.

Net profit surged 36 percent to CNY119.2 billion (USD16.7 billion) in the nine months ended Sept. 30, the insurance giant said in an earnings report released yesterday. Revenue rose 8.7 percent to CNY861.8 billion.

“Ping An delivered excellent results in insurance funds investment,” the Shanghai-based company noted. The portfolio grew 12.7 percent to more than CNY5.32 trillion (USD747 billion), achieving a 5 percent yield, compared with 3.7 percent a year ago.

China’s stock markets have soared since last month, logging their best performance in more than 15 years. The rally has been largely driven by a raft of aggressive stimulus measures introduced by the central government to boost the economy.

Shares of Ping An [SHA: 601318] ended 0.3 percent lower at CNY56.76 (USD7.97) each in Shanghai today, while its Hong Kong-traded stock [HKG: 2318] fell 1.8 percent to HKD48.15 (USD6.19).

Ping An's three core businesses -- life and health insurance, property and casualty insurance, and banking -- saw combined profits rise 5.7 percent to CNY119.7 million (USD168 million).

The new business value of life and health insurance jumped 34 percent to CNY35.2 billion (USD4.9 billion), with agent channel NBV up 32 percent and NBV per agent surging 55 percent. The number of life insurance sales agents reached around 362,000 at the end of last month.

Ping An Property & Casualty Insurance’s revenue rose 4.5 percent to CNY246 million and operating profit surged 40 percent to CNY14 million (USD2 million), its parent company noted. Ping An Bank's net profit edged 0.2 percent higher to CNY39.7 billion.

The health and senior care ecosystem is becoming an increasingly important enabler for Ping An’s core life insurance business, it said, with more than 19.5 million customers using the ecosystem’s services in the period.

About 76 percent of Ping An Life's newly enrolled customers used health management services in the first nine months. Those entitled to health and senior care services contributed over 70 percent of the firm's NBV, with around 39 percent from senior care services and the rest from health care services.

Ping An received Lufax Holding's special dividend in July, with its stake in the financial services platform rising to 56.8 percent from 41.4 percent, meaning that Lufax's earnings were integrated into its consolidated financial statements. Excluding this impact, the insurer's operating profit rose 5.5 percent in the first three quarters.

Editor: Martin Kadiev