HK Stock Market Move | Insurance stocks continue to rise. New China Life Insurance (01336) rose nearly 5% in intraday trading, breaking through its peak. China Life Insurance (02628) rose nearly 2%.

Insurance stocks continued their recent upward trend. As of the time of writing, New China Life Insurance (01336) rose by 4.57% to HKD 51.5; China Life Insurance (02628) rose by 1.97% to HKD 23.35; China Pacific Insurance (02601) rose by 1.36% to HKD 33.45; Ping An Insurance (02318) rose by 0.89% to HKD 56.9. On the news front, the Insurance Industry Association recently announced that the research value of the current ordinary life insurance product guaranteed interest rate is 1.99%. According to announcements from major companies, the guaranteed interest rate for ordinary life insurance products will be decreased from 2.5% to 2.0%; the upper limit of the guaranteed interest rate for dividend insurance will be adjusted from 2% to 1.75%, and for universal insurance from 1.5% to 1.0%. Ping An, China Life, CPIC, and others have announced they will switch all products to the new pricing rate requirements after August 31. A recent research report from Morgan Stanley stated that regulatory agencies and insurance companies have taken a series of measures to mitigate interest spread loss risks since the second half of 2023, and this trend is expected to continue. After August, the guaranteed liability cost for new capital inflows for insurance companies is expected to decrease to around 1.7%, which can improve profitability relative to current long-term interest rates above 1.7%. The bank pointed out that key drivers for strong performance of insurance companies include recent interest rate hikes, solid performance forecasts for the first half of 2025, and favorable market sentiment and fund flows.