Taiwan’s life insurers trimmed their combined investment in local stocks to NT$1.69 trillion (US$57.97 billion) as of the end of last month, down by NT$65.5 billion or 3.7 percent from a month earlier, data released on Thursday last week by the Financial Supervisory Commission showed.
The figures were still the second-highest amount that Taiwanese life insurers had invested in local equities, after a record NT$1.76 trillion in July, the data showed.
The insurers’ combined investment in foreign equities increased by NT$32.8 billion month-on-month to NT$613.5 billion as of the end of last month, the data showed.
The commission did not elaborate on the drop in local equity holdings last month, when the TAIEX posted a decline of 0.57 percent from July.
Major life insurers, such as Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽) and Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽), had said that they would adjust equity investment portfolios, preferring to sell stocks and seize capital gains instead of holding them long-term.
As life insurers reduced their investment in local equities, bonds and exchange-traded funds, their domestic cash positions increased to NT$762.8 billion from NT$48.8 billion in July, the highest over the past six months, the commission said.
Overall, life insurers’ local equity investments made up 6.06 percent of their total investments as of the end of last month, compared with 2.19 percent in foreign stocks, commission data showed.
The insurers saw their overseas investments increase by NT$53.2 billion monthly to NT$18.47 trillion last month, or 66 percent of their total investments, the data showed.
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