Local insurance stocks take a beating

PETALING JAYA: Insurance stocks on Bursa Malaysia took a beating yesterday, as news that a number of local insurers and reinsurers are involved in providing aviation insurance to the missing Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200ER aircraft as well as its passengers, emerged.
SunBiz reported yesterday that Etiqa Insurance & Takaful Bhd is the local lead insurer for Malaysian Airline System Bhd's fleet, which includes the missing jetliner. Malaysian Reinsurance Bhd (Malaysian Re) was identified as one reinsurer for the airline.
The share price of Allianz Malaysia Bhd declined by 40 sen or 3.76% to RM10.24, while its preference share, Allianz-PA, dropped by 32 sen or 2.99% to RM10.40.
Germany's Allianz is the lead insurer covering the missing aircraft with the largest portion of risk. Allianz Malaysia and Allianz-PA were the second and fourth top losers in the market yesterday.
Malaysian Re's parent MNRB Holdings Bhd's saw its shares decline by 7 sen or 1.81% to RM3.79.
Meanwhile, the share price of Malayan Banking Bhd, Etiqa's parent, declined by 9 sen or 0.94%, closing at RM9.51. Etiqa also provides travel insurance and medical assistance to MAS passengers.
It is learnt that each insurer involved, including Etiqa, has made provision for losses arising from the jet's disappearance.
Syarikat Takaful Malaysia Bhd was the third biggest loser yesterday as its share price fell 36 sen or 3.23% to RM10.78.
Other general insurers also saw their share prices affected.
Shares of LPI Capital Bhd, which owns Lonpac Insurance Bhd dropped 2 sen or 0.1% to RM16.92, while MPHB Capital Bhd declined 2 sen or 1.1% to RM1.84.
Manulife Holdings Bhd, however, rose 6 sen or 1.6% to RM3.70, while Tune Ins Holdings Bhd increased slightly by 1 sen or 0.5% to RM1.88.
Stocks of bank-backed insurance companies lost ground, too.
AMMB Holdings Bhd, which owns AmLife Insurance Bhd and AmGeneral Insurance Bhd, saw its share price fall 1 sen or 0.1% to RM7.13.
Hong Leong Financial Group Bhd, the parent company of Hong Leong Assurance Bhd, declined 16 sen or 1.03% to RM15.36 while Affin Holdings Bhd shares fell 3 sen or 0.7% to RM3.98.
Contact with Flight MH370 was lost early Saturday morning and the aircraft, which was heading to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur, has been missing since then. A massive search and rescue operation involving 12 countries is in progress.