CHINA Life Insurance Co, the nation's largest insurer, said first-quarter profit plummeted as its investment returns took a hit from a decline in the domestic stock market.

The Beijing-based insurer's first-quarter net income dropped 60.9 percent to 3.47 billion yuan (US$495 million), or 0.12 yuan a share, from 8.89 billion yuan, or 0.31 yuan a share, the firm said in a statement yesterday.

China Life's investment returns plunged in the first quarter as the mainland's benchmark stock market lost 29 percent of its value, making it the world's seventh-worst performer after being its best in 2007. The firm's 39.5 percent first-quarter premium growth also left it trailing a 52-percent average for the country's life insurance industry.

"I'd feel comfortable buying more China Life and other insurance stocks if I could rely on Chinese stocks going up 10 percent a year like a normal market," not going up 100 percent or plunging, said Howard Wang, the Hong Kong-based head of China operations at JF Asset Management Ltd. "If A shares resume a more normal path, that would allow investors to look past factors like slowing premium growth."

China Life's net investment income fell 10 percent to 15.1 billion yuan in the first quarter, according to the statement.