Life insurance companies made large net purchases in investment assets while also reporting increasing cash and bank balances in the first quarter of 2018. This is in accordance with noted quarterly tendencies in previous years. As life insurance companies account for the majority of insurance companies’ holdings in investment assets, these tendencies also hold true for the insurance sector in general.

Notable transactions

Insurance companies’ investments were fairly evenly spread among most classes of financial assets. An exception worthy of mention is bonds; these were net sold for SEK 6 billion during the quarter. The market development for bonds was sufficiently strong to counteract the net sales and the value of bond holdings rose by SEK 2.5 billion in the quarter. Debentures and convertible loans were also net sold in the first quarter, though in smaller quantities.

Slowdown in the market for shares and participations

Market development in shares and participations was strong in the last two quarters of 2017. Increasing market values of such assets strongly contributed to the increase in investment assets held by the insurance companies throughout said two quarters. The trend hit a significant slowdown in the first quarter of 2018, with a comparatively small increase in the market value of shares and participations.

2018-09-11 at 09:30.