Off to a good start

While January is traditionally a time when we set ourselves resolutions for the year to come, for Ageas this task will be all the more important as 2018 is the final year of our three-year strategy “Ambition 2018”. So it will be the time to assess our achievements.

2018 is already off to a really good start with our share price gaining an impressive 4.8% since the 1st of January and closing on Friday at a two-year high of 42,68 euros.

This week’s performance was probably supported by the global rise of bond yields and general sentiment that central banks are gradually shifting away from an era of quantitative easing.

Indeed the 10-year US Treasury yield climbed to a nine-month high of 2.59% on Wednesday following the decision by the Bank of Japan to scale back its monthly bond purchases and speculation that China might slow its purchase of US bonds. Furthermore, the European Central Bank hinted on Thursday that it could phase out its bond-buying programme faster than anticipated which sent European government bond yields higher. As a consequence, the 10-year Bund yield surged above 0.58% on Friday, its highest since July.

As higher rates are usually perceived as positive for banks and insurance companies, financial stocks enjoyed a strong boost. The Stoxx Insurance closed the trading week 2.6% up, compared to a more modest 0.1% for the Stoxx 50. As for Ageas, the share gained 2.8% this week.

So definitely a very good start to the year before entering today in a closed period prior to publishing our full year 2017 results on the 21st of February.