PING An Insurance Group Co. of China, Asia’s second-largest insurer by market value, yesterday reported a 38 percent rise in full-year profit for 2015 as investment returns from stock trading expanded and banking revenue increased.

    Strong life insurance sales and higher yields on property and casualty policies helped Ping An Insurance to its highest profit since 2003.

    Net income climbed to 54.2 billion yuan (US$8.3 billion) from 39.3 billion yuan a year earlier, the Shenzhen-based company said in a statement.

    Written premiums for life insurance rose 20 percent to 299.8 billion yuan, up from 252.7 billion yuan a year ago, while the investment yield for property and casualty insurance rose to 6.3 percent last year from 5.3 percent in 2014.

    The insurer benefited from volatility in the nation’s stock market. Total investment income nearly doubled to 103.2 billion yuan, the company said in the statement. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index surged more than 50 percent in the first half of last year before faltering in the second half, dropping 30 percent from the June peak.

    Ping An has sustained its growth well and successfully expanded the margins on its products, Bernstein Research analyst Zhou Min said before the results were posted.

    (SD-Agencies)