What a run

A “stellar run”, this is how one financial analyst described today the performance of Ageas’ share price since the beginning of the year. Indeed, despite the share losing 1.7% this week (compared to 1.5% for the Stoxx Insurance), Ageas stands out as a strong outperformer in the market. Since January, the share price has gained 6.4% while the Stoxx Insurance, the Bel20 and the Euro Stoxx 50 have all three declined, respectively 5.0%, 6.4% and 2.9%.

This week has been a strange week with the news flow on trade blowing hot and cold on the markets. It got off to a bad start as trade tensions between the US and China spread to Europe.  Concerns rattled the stock exchange across the board with the Stoxx 600, the FTSE100 and the Dax all falling by more than 2% on Monday. During the rest of the trading week, markets alternated between ups and downs depending on the evolution of the trade situation.

In addition to tariff fears, Chinese equities have been hit by concerns about a slowing economy and tightening credit. Consequently, the Shanghai composite index fell to a two-year low, totalling on Thursday a loss of nearly 10% since the beginning of the month and 18% since the beginning of the year, before rebounding sharply on Friday.

Did the Chinese sell-off have a ripple effect on Ageas’ share given the presence of the Group in this market? It is possible. In any event, the drop in the share price, taking place at the end of the semester, was probably driven more by profit-taking in the wake of the very strong recent performance of the share.

Ageas had a busy start to the 2nd half of the year as it launched two important announcements earlier today; a first on the fact that BNP Paribas Fortis decided not to exercise the option it had on a 25% + 1 share stake in AG Insurance, Ageas’s Belgian insurance subsidiary and a second that it received the approval from the Belgian National Bank to organise reinsurance activities.