PICC Property & Casualty Co, China's largest non-life insurer, said profit surged 44 percent in 2007, bolstered by stock market investment gains even as the company's premium growth trailed the industry average.

Net income grew to 2.99 billion yuan (US$427 million), or 0.268 yuan a share, from 2.1 billion yuan, or 0.187 yuan a share, a year earlier, the Beijing-based insurer said in a statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange yesterday. PICC may be hit harder than its rivals after China's stock market dropped 33 percent in 2008, because its earnings performance is more dependent on investment gains, according to analysts.