(Ageas) Mooncake

Last week China and other East Asian countries, such as Vietnam and Singapore celebrated the Mid-Autumn festival also often referred to as Moon festival or Mooncake festival. The Mid-Autumn Festival is the 2nd most important festival in China after Chinese New Year and always occurs in September or October on the 8th month and 15th day of the Chinese lunar calendar. The festival celebrates the first full moon of autumn when the moon is believed to be the biggest and fullest with the bright orange glow of the Harvest moon. Since the full moon is seen by Chinese people as a symbol of reunion, harmony and happiness, one of the most common ways people celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival is by gathering together the entire family, setting out lanterns to make the surroundings appear more festive and gazing fondly at the full moon while enjoying mooncakes, a dense sweet pastry that is baked or steamed often accompanied by tea.

Last trading week (or even this 2018 trading year) investors were probably also gazing fondly at the Ageas share (and in the spirit of the Mid-Autumn festival perhaps enjoying a mooncake or two) as up until & including Thursday the Ageas share price reached a new all-time high (at closing) every day. On Monday the share closed at EUR 46.19 which on that day meant a new record high. As the trading week progressed this positive momentum continued with a new all-time record high of EUR 47.04 reached on Thursday. However, on Friday European markets were rattled by the news that Italy's new government proposed a 2019 budget with a deficit three times greater than the previous administration's target potentially setting up a clash with the European Commission. Eventually, last Friday the Ageas share closed at EUR 46.31 still up 0.4% over last trading week.

Since the beginning of this year the Ageas share is up EUR 5.6 or +13.7% outperforming both the Eurostoxx 50 (-3.0%) and the SXIP 600 Insurance index (+0.3%) making the Ageas share price performance thus far, in 2018, one of the best performers compared to other listed European insurance companies.