October 28 -- China Life Insurance (601628.SH, 2628.HK) posted a 33 percent drop in net profit attributable to shareholders for the first three quarters to 16.72 billion yuan, reports China Business News, citing a company filing.

Third quarter net profit attributable to shareholders fell 45.7 percent year-on-year to 3.75 billion yuan.

The insurer attributes the drop in earnings to the volatile capital markets resulting in lower investment returns, and losses from assets impairment.

Through the end of September, China Life’s total assets increased 7.9 percent year-on-year to 1.52 trillion yuan. Net assets per share dropped 15.6 percent year-on-year to 6.23 yuan in the same period.

Premium income rose 2.6 percent year-on-year to 264.2 billion yuan during the first three quarters. For the month of September, premium income dropped 6.8 percent to 27.2 billion yuan.

Investment assets totaled 1.42 trillion yuan through the end of September, with investment returns rising 7.38 percent year-on-year to 50.9 billion yuan in the first three quarters. Investment returns increased just one million yuan to 15.03 billion yuan in the third quarter.

The insurer's rate of return on investments rose 0.49 percent year-on-year to 4.14 percent, 1.44 percentage points higher than the industry average of 2.7 percent.

The Shanghai Composite Index had declined 16 percent through the end of September from the beginning of 2011, and a 14.6 percent drop was recorded in the third quarter.

The total market capitalization of the A share market fell 4.24 trillion yuan in the third quarter, while the bonds market dropped 1.28 percent.

China Life lost 286 million yuan from fair value changes in the first three quarters, reversing gains from fair value changes in the same period a year ago.

Shares of China Life rose 2.8 percent to trade at 16.55 yuan per share at 10:27 today.